Chapter 1: Does winning a Sefer Torah in a raffle fulfill the mitzvah?
Okay, everybody, welcome back to another week of Answering Yerushalayim. And once again, this is L'Chosra For Shalema, for Rabbi Jonathan Cohn, Yehonasan Eitan, Ben Basheva, Bracha, Yishlava For Shalema, B'Soch, Shar Chol Yisrael, and we thank him so, so much for arranging this year, each and every week, arranging all the questions. and organizing them.
I want to start with a follow-up from last week. You know, I do get feedback every now and then from some of the shaylas that we discussed. So last week we discussed if a person wins a raffle for a Sefer Torah. And I had said that l'chara depends on what the on what the nature of the mitzvah of ksiva sefer Torah is. Is it the mitzvah of ksiva sefer Torah, or a mitzvah to have the sefer Torah?
They pointed out that it's a machlok esri shonim. It is explicit in the Gemara, and in the Shulchan Orch, in Simmon, Ayin, Resh, Tzefal, and Yerudea, that if a person is Yoresh, a sefer Torah, that they're for sure not Yotze, the mitzvah. The Ramah then adds that if you commission a Sefer Torah to be written, or buy a puzzle of Sefer Torah and repair it, then you get credit for writing it.
However, then there's something in between. If a person buys a kosher of Sefer Torah, so he didn't fix the Sefer Torah, he didn't commission the Sefer Torah, but nor did he yarsh in the Sefer Torah. He bought a Sefer Torah that was already in existence, and he bought it. So the Ramah says you're grabbing a mitzvah minashuk and you're a night yotzeh.
So the grah says, no, chotev mitzvah minashuk means you are yotzeh. Machlok es ramah in the grah whether you're yotzeh when you buy a kosher Sefer Torah. So we paskin that buying a Sefer Torah, most poskin from what I understand, do paskin like the grah that if you buy a Sefer Torah that that does qualify as something.
Certainly commissioning a Sefer Torah like the Ramah we paskin is fulfillment of the mitzvah. So after I mentioned this, I got feedback from a world-renowned sofer, Rav Uve Mendelowitz, a shlita, who said that he thought that when you win a Sefer Torah in a raffle, it's similar to inheriting a Sefer Torah, which is mefurish that you're not Yotze.
I don't know, I thought it was more similar to commissioning a Sefer Torah. So he said, why do you think it's more similar to commissioning a Sefer Torah? Because you're buying a ticket, and buying a ticket is like buying the Torah. So he argued the fact that you bought a ticket is not the same as buying a Sefer Torah. So I would just argue that everybody's buying a ticket.
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Chapter 2: Are digital photo frames and screens permitted on Shabbat?
So everyone's buying a ticket with the understanding that the winner is the ultimate buyer. So let's say, you know, I can't afford, let's say a Sefer Torah costs $100,000. and I can't afford all $100,000. So I put together a group of wealthy relatives, and they all agree that they all have Sefer Torah already. So they all agree that this will be my Sefer Torah, and they want to do this for me.
They want to do this for me, that I should be able to have a Sefer Torah. So I contribute $10,000, and a bunch of other people contribute $10,000 also, and I'm the one that goes home with the Sefer Torah. So I would think that you are Yotze in such a case. meaning that's like buying a Sefer Torah.
I think that's the understanding of a raffle, that you know somebody's going to go home with it, and therefore you're all agreeing that we're all paying for it, and somebody's going to go home with it.
My other argument was that the difference between yarshening a Sefer Torah where you're not Yotze, versus winning a Sefer Torah in a raffle, is that that Sefer Torah that you yarshened was somebody else's mitzvah of Ksiva Sefer Torah, meaning that Sefer Torah was written by your father before he died, for his mitzvah of Ksiva Sefer Torah.
So the whole idea that if you're Yorish, you need to write your own is because you need to do your mitzvah of Ksiva Sefer Torah. But if a Sefer Torah is written for whoever wins the raffle, it's like a B'rera type of situation, for whoever wins the raffle. So I still think I'm right. I don't know. That it might be like buying a Sefer Torah. Anyway, just a little follow-up from last week.
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Chapter 3: What is the halachic status of the Manhattan Eruv?
But I didn't even quote what it says in Shulchan Aruch last week. I was just quoting the Rishonim. So it's important to know what it says in Shulchan Aruch. And, you know, always appreciate feedback, especially from Tamir Chacham of Rabbi Mendelitz's caliber. Okay, question number one.
Many homes now have digital picture frames or screens that display rotating photos, and sometimes headlines or sports scores is permitted for such screens to be on during Shabbos. So let's first take the headlines and sports scores off the table a little bit. Meaning, if it's putting live headlines and sports scores, you're probably not allowed to read such things on Shabbos.
The Shulchan Aruch says you're not allowed to read captions under pictures and things like that. So probably there's some level of a gzerimish m'kosev and of the d'chol and other things relating to headlines and sports scores that flash across Shabbos.
screen to be reading such things probably probably but let's just talk about the digital frames themselves because it's not only popular in homes it has become increasingly popular in schools that they have a display a digital display in In my shul, in the actual sanctuary, in the front of the shul, we have two digital displays.
Now, typically, they don't change very much, other than, like, on the bottom line, it says, and then it will say, that will flash away, and at some point then we'll say, or whatever. You know, on the bottom of the screen and the rest of the screen stays pretty consistent with that day's and that week's Zmanim until somebody changes it. And that's all it has.
But a lot of shuls have display boards in the lobby where it will have flyers of upcoming events in the shul that go across the screen, come on and off the screen over the course of Shabbos. So it's homes, it's shuls. In fact, I was just in Brooklyn this past Shabbos at the shul of one of the great shuls.
G-d in America today, Rav Yisrael Reisman, and in his shul, they have such a scream in the lobby. It didn't change very much, but it did change a little bit. You know, rotated the flyer of my presence in the shul, you know, my Shabbos in the shul, with other flyers of other things. So the question is, is there any problem with this?
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Chapter 4: How does God’s influence affect non-Jews?
So again, leaving out the sports scores in the news, just having... Having that. So having a screen that flashes pictures and fires and things like that. I once wrote an article about coffee machines running on Shabbos, meaning if you set up your coffee machine to cook your coffee on Shabbos morning and you set it all up before Shabbos, is there any problem with that?
So there are a lot of issues that are unique to coffee machines, you know, shehiya and achzara and bishel and whatever. But part of it is just setting up a machine before Shabbos that's going to be doing malacha on Shabbos, so on the surface.
since you're not actively doing any milacha, it's running entirely by itself, even though the creation of pictures on Shabbos would violate Kosev, meaning if you would turn on a digital frame on Shabbos, it would violate Kosev, most post-Kamalachar would say it's mutter.
And the background is that there is a concept in Hilchah Shabbos called Shvisas Kelim, to have your utensils rest from milacha on Shabbos. Generally, though, the halacha is that we're not concerned with Shvitsas Kehlim.
The Mishnah, in the end of the first parakh of Masech Shabbos, has a makhlokas between the Beishama and Beis Hillel, whether you're allowed to set up Kehlim before Shabbos to continue performing malacha into Shabbos. And the Shulchan Aruch, the Simen Ration and Beis, Paschans like the Beis Hillel, obviously, who say that there is no... that the Kli can continue to do your work into Shabbos.
And the Mishnahis give examples of setting up an irrigation system, setting up a trap for an animal. However, the B'reis and Shabbos Tafir Chas says that yes, you're allowed to set up an irrigation system. However, what you may not do is you may not put wheat in a water mill going into Shabbos with the intention that the mill continues to grind the wheat into Shabbos itself.
And the Gemara says, well, wait a second, isn't that just Shavissa's Kelim? What's the problem? You did everything before Shabbos, it's happening on its own on Shabbos. And the Gemara gives two answers. Answer number one is, yeah, but a mill makes a lot of noise.
And Avshamilsa and Sabig B'Zayon, to have such a noisy machine running on Shabbos, that's where some of the posts came before the dishwashers got so quiet to run the dishwasher. It used to be very loud. So some of the posts can talk about dishwashers being a problem of just excessive noise. The other answer, the Gemara says, is that price of hal shito b'shamay. So the Rishonim...
Havimah Chokas, are we concerned with noisy machinery on Shabbos? And Rav Moshe has a famous, I don't know, famous, but he has a comment in Rav Moshe, that if you could hear it in the next room, then it's too noisy. Okay, but these, so based on that Gemara, your Kelim Dumalacha for you on Shabbos, that is fine, unless it's very noisy, and obviously these photo frames are not noisy at all.
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Chapter 5: Is it preferable to daven in a shul if there is a house minyan nearby?
In the Siman Reshman Hay in Ar Chaim, the Shulchan Aruch goes through the definition of a Rosh Hashanah Rabim, and quotes two deos, two opinions, whether part of the definition of a Rosh Hashanah Rabim is that there needs to be 600,000 people there. If you do not need to have 600,000 people there for something to be a Rosh Hashanah, that is a chumrah.
If you need to have 600,000 people there for something to be considered a Rosh Hashanah, that is a kula. So the Mishabur writes, we don't like that kula. We don't like the suggestion that something is not a Rosh Hashanah just because it doesn't have 600,000 people there. But we cannot make a macha'a against those who do rely on that suggestion.
Now, so Rav Moshe and all the others would not have had a problem with it, would not have had a problem with it, I mean they may have had a problem with it to rely on it themselves, but they certainly would not have publicly said anything probably if it didn't have 600,000 people there.
Because then at least you're relying on the opinion that holds that it's not a Rosh Hashanah if it doesn't have 600,000 people. Problem is Manhattan does have 600,000 people. So this became a matter of a lot of discussion in the post. Rav Moshe happens to say... That 600,000 people does not mean you need 600,000 people to go down the street.
I should add that an area that has two walls, which all of Manhattan does because there are a lot of buildings on the streets, and those buildings make up walls down each street. It's definitely more building than open space. would not be Rosh Hashanah unless it's open on both ends. And that's where you run into a problem, that it's open on both ends.
So anyway, Rav Moshe says 600,000 people doesn't mean 600,000 people on the street. It means 600,000 people in the area, 600,000 people that live in the area. Even in the 1950s or 40s, whenever Moshe wrote this Shuvah, I think it was the 50s, there were millions of people living in Manhattan.
And he said the raya that they don't have to be walking through the street is, we learn the number 600,000 from the Midbar. In the Midbar, that was how many people it was. Now, it's true, that's how many men between the age of 20 and 60 it was.
But we learn the halacha based on what is explicit in the Chumash, not based on our models of how many people there must have been using that population as a starting point. So anyway, this became a major issue. A lot of people disagreed with Rav Moshe and even published responses to Rav Moshe's It's Rav Moshe's tshuva. Rav Moshe wrote a long tshuva. It's fascinating.
The tshuva is dated Erev Shavuos, and he closes the tshuva by wishing everyone a Chag Sameach, which, like, you know, I don't know what you do in Erev Shavuos, but, like, Rav Moshe is dealing with one of the most complicated suggers in Halacha and writing this long, long tshuva on Erev Shavuos.
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Chapter 6: How strictly should we follow the rule of not splitting verses?
And where are the Tzuras HaPesachs? Where are the Mechitzos? You know, what's the situation by the overpasses, right? Then you have to work out all of the details within that Erev. And there are many, many, many details within those Erevim. So anyway, I think Rav Henkin, if I'm not mistaken, and Rav Nachman del Kasher,
were in favor of making an area of Manhattan, at least in theory, that it could work in Manhattan. And at a certain point, the machlokas got heated enough that there was like a kol kore that was signed by the Yagudasar Rabbanim, and it was signed by a number of gedolim, Rav Aaron Kotler, Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky, Rav Bik, Rav Gedal Yashur, and Rav Moshe Feinstein. And
It was worded much more strongly than his chuvah was, in terms of saying that people who carry in such an eruv are considered mechal alay shabbos, and things like that. Okay, so it's a long, long, long dispute. I think someone just publicized recently a letter from Rabbi Lamb's memos about... about the heir of Manhattan that they had met with Rav Moshe.
I don't remember the details of the memo, but there's a lot of good history here. I'm sure there are people that have done PhD theses on the heir of Manhattan and the history and the negotiations with this gadol and that gadol, because originally Rav Moshe said, I'm just not going to say anything.
and then ultimately he did sign, perhaps because he thought they were quoting in his name that it's Mutter, when he held it's not Mutter. So whatever it is, there's a lot of interest. I think the line that Rabbi Lamb said when he went to meet with Rabbi Aaron Cutler was that he said, he was like, a lamb being led to the slaughter, when he met with Reverend Cutler about this.
Okay, question number three. How are we supposed to view God's influence in everyday affairs that don't affect Jews? Meaning what essentially the question is, is about hashkacha pratis as it relates to non-Jews. So my first point is, you're asking the wrong Rabbi Arieh Leibowitz.
The Rabbi Aryeh Leibowitz in Shalvin, who I refer to as the real Rabbi Aryeh Leibowitz, has written a book on Hashkoch HaPratis. In fact, when the book came out, people were asking me if I would autograph a copy for them because they assumed it was me. And I told this to Rabbi Aryeh Leibowitz and he said, if it helps the book sell in Woodmere, Gezunte, go and autograph a copy.
but he did a lot of research on this topic. He has a particular thesis, if I'm not mistaken, about this topic, but there are a number of opinions about it. Traditionally, people distinguish between Ashkacha Pratis and Ashkacha Klalus, and the suggestion is made in Rishonim that Jewish people are privy to Ashkacha Pratis, whereas non-Jews have more of Ashkacha Klalus, not Ashkacha Pratis.
There are others that say,
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Chapter 7: Does seeing the top of the Golden Dome require Keriah?
that Hashem, of course, is involved in everything. The difference between Jews and non-Jews is only whether they are judged based on their own personal merit or based on whether they have fulfilled their mission in the general scheme of things in society. That instead of the non-Jew being judged for each action, yes, no, mitzvah, avera, he's judged more on the mission he's fulfilled in society.
And certainly, certainly, Everyone agrees, to my knowledge, that a non-Jew is allowed to, and perhaps obligated to, daven, to pray. So if you're praying, it assumes some level of hashkacha. Meaning, if you're doing bakashot, so it assumes some level of hashkacha. So I don't know. I'm not God's accountant. I don't know exactly how it works.
And this is something that's discussed and debated and worked out in Rishonim. But again, I would strongly encourage purchasing Rabbi Aryeh Leibowitz's book on Hashkach HaPratos. Okay, question number four. If there is a house of minyan on one's block, is it still preferable to daven in a shul? So there's the short answer and the long answer.
The short answer is, yes, of course it's preferable to davening a shul.
So then people say, come on, you're making that up, you're just a shul rabbi, and you're only saying that because it serves your interest, and rabbis just want to make people's lives difficult, and that's why they don't want people davening a houseman on them, because they're afraid it's going to weaken the rabbi's control and power.
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Chapter 8: How can we handle modern temptations effectively?
So let me explain to you why the yes. Let me give the long answer. The Gemara quotes a passage in the 14th parak of Mishle that when a person does mitzvot b'rov am hajras melech it is the greatest covet to the Rebbe to do mitzvot b'rov am with a larger crowd. The B'yarei Lachan even says better to learn in a Beis Medrash than to learn privately because b'rov am hajras melech.
and therefore says that a person should always try to daven in a shul with the tzibur. In fact, the Magan Avram says, even if you have a minion not on your block, not next door, Even if you have a minion in your own house, you should daven in shul, because there's a larger crowd in shul, so you should go to shul.
That means, assuming it's not going to cause a major sholom ba'ister, but your dad runs a minion in the den where there's a large screen TV and whatever else there, You should go to shul. You should go to shul.
Now, the second issue is, and perhaps the bigger one, is the Gemara in Brach HaStav Ches says that anyone who has a Beis HaKnesses in their city and is not Nikh Nesham L'Hispalel is called a Shechin Ra. is called a bad neighbor. Shulchan Aruch quotes this, you have a base of Knesset in your city, and you don't go there, you don't go there to daven, you're a shachin, you're a shachin ra.
The Mishra Bruin points out, that the Prima Gadim even raises the possibility, that if there's no minion in shul, you're still a shachin ra, if you don't go daven in the shul. That it's worth it to daven in the shul. So in Mishra Bura, Mishra Yitshuvah points out that if you daven in your house with a minyan, there is a hashras hashchina.
So you may be, well, it's the wrong choice, but maybe, maybe it's not a violation of shach ein ra. A third issue is that Chazal take kviyas malchum latzvila very seriously, meaning it's important to set yourself up for the right context of of tefillah. A person cannot, it's, davening is hard. And having the right kavanah is hard.
So we need to do whatever we can in order to put ourselves in a context where we have the best chance of a serious mindset, a proper environment, and genuine kavanah. In fact, the Gemara in Brach Staf Lamar Aleph says that if a person is mispalal mitoch schok or kalos rosh, that is a problem. You're not supposed to do that. A person is supposed to come into tefillah with a sense of seriousness.
It's been a while since I've davened in house minyanim, but when I did, I seem to remember an awful lot of context of schok and kalos rosh. In fact, Talmid Rabbein Yonah said that you don't have to have a makam within your shul because the entire shul is a makam kadosh and is therefore appropriate for a tefillah. So there is the concept of a fourth issue is simply
that you want to use all the tools at your disposal to make your tefillah a better tefillah. So davening in a place that is designated as a makkum tefillah lends a sense of kedushah to that place and elevates the tefillah. If a person... is davening in a place where they watch football games on Sundays, that is not a place of Kedusha.
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