CHAZAQ’s Torah Talks #20: Rabbi Avi Slansky - The World Of Halacha

welcome everyone to tuesday's timely tour talks tonight we have a very very special guest a very dear friend of ours all the way from the holy land for merits israel we have rabbi avi slansky shlita a renowned speaker author mikhail sperms actually got a few copies today really excited about it barbie slansky welcome sean malaysia how are you doing excellent thank you thank you so much for having me what a privilege to be here in the famous hazak headquarters it's our honor to have the rabbi and we're really excited about tonight's topic which is the world of of jewish law but before we delve into tonight's uh exciting topic rabbi could you please give our listeners a little bit background of yourself i know it's not so comfortable to talk about yourself but a little bit about uh where you've learned what uh what you're involved etc for sure well first of all as you'll all hear i will have a hard time doing the halacha i am not sparty by nature and therefore i'm gonna have to go the regular ashkenazi route it's all actors but uh we will try our best i live in barcelona i live in arts israel living there now for about nine years and as uh we got a free promo a moment ago we've wrote in uh threes farm i say we because they're in based on the famous shirim of shaggy kalis and mirt hashem we're writing we're learning we're teaching i'm a rabbini shiva america zattara in uh you shall i am we give a taffyemi share which many people enjoy and uh it's an honor to sit here and talk a little bit about halakhah beautiful grab i actually have a few cover told me that they started off filming they listened to your shirt and they really enjoyed it so like was mentioned this week's topic is the world of allah the word which we usually translate as law uh the root of it is uh is is to to go or to walk right so some might feel that that has a bunch of restrictions how do we view as a way towards the best life we know is following the the torah's laws and torah is hura which is the way of life rabbi if you could give us shed some light on this topic so i think a story that they say with him and stories with him usually are true not always are they written down but the story is told that rashishiva met the prophet and said to the you know it's not for me i can't learn it obviously was probably not devastated because he was the biggest under on two feet but he said what's your problem and the resheba says i need to be able to talk i'm going to learn to save for smearassalasha and i'm going to have to keep my mouth shut it's not me i know shtica silence is the best but i have to talk so the safer looks beautiful i bought a copy don't worry but it's not for me and am looked at him and said the exact opposite without the safer you can't talk with the safer now is when you could open your mouth and this is really the beautiful description of in the right terms is that it's not necessarily a straight jacket it's not necessarily restrictions which hopefully we'll talk more about today but it's it's a way of life and it's a way of life that the more you know the easier it is as this is hopefully something that we'll talk a little bit about in the next few minutes but people all the time remark you know we i teach on yeshiva and as after many of the shirum the boys say wow i never knew that and i say oh so what do you think about it and expecting them to be oh i can't do this and i can't do that and they explained to me it's great i didn't know that was allowed i didn't know i could do that and i didn't know like it's just such a small difference let me let me do it that way and that's really the world of allah the proper world of alaka which is what the heim is teaching us and similarly to give one more example is hashim jinpinkis famously i think it's actually in one of his farm when he talks about shabbos he says muksa is an example of what shabbos is because in shabbos your hands are different chapters they're shabba sands why because in chavez you can't just do whatever you want you can't just pick up a pen you can't just move things around you have to know is it muksa is it not muksa so people hear this story and they feel constricted what the whole shabbos i have to think what and and for for some when they're at the beginning stages of learning it is difficult but as you learn more and you start to realize first of all it becomes part of your nature which is the beauty of it but more than that is you start to learn it's true so i couldn't move it in that way but in that way it's perfectly mother and we could give so many examples which i think we're going to get to later but let's just use the pen on the table could you move a pen a pen is much so you can't move a pen so someone's going to say oh yeah it's so difficult i have to come here and bend down put my mouth in his pen and then he's going to people are going to start yelling at me about corona they're gonna start burning the pen and what am i gonna do but then you realize no what's the halacha is that if the pen is on the table and you need the place of the table you could pick it up and move it i could pick it up with my hands yeah you could pick it up with your hands and move it and sit down and have your shavasudda so like laurav said is to go it's a way of life it's a way of knowing what hashem wants you to do and then everything changes and as we'll see more hopefully by the end of today's show how it's really going to be in people's favor and hopefully we'll get to there soon amazing amazing rabbit rabbit uh robbie slansky unbelievable very very big kids uh you know in alaka there's sometimes a difference of opinion this rabbit a says this is robbie b says this isn't rabbi c says that uh can you please give explain the importance of having a personal rabbi to ask your questions to we don't care about the ethics of our fathers it says make for yourself a rabbit easter like minnesota so you don't have any code any doubts grab it if you give us shed some light on that topic as well so the question could be a dangerous one and we're going to try to tread water tightly on this one like the rav said and that's that's the answer and actually as i was driving over and i knew i was gonna have to talk about aloha i put a phone call into one of the mahabhara one of the writers of dear shoe dear missionary he's one of their writers of the dear shimish nibura which by now is more than a staple more than a staple and i i asked him i asked him some of these questions i asked him what do you say about allah and he said you know what the real real difficult problem is is that what do i do rabbi a says mutter rabbi c says ulcer everything is mother everything is us and everyone is just and this is without me prompting him the question he said that's that's the biggest difficulty i said so what should someone do about it so his answer and maybe we'll just elaborate a little bit was you gotta find the middle road as the rambam my manatees famously coins it the chevil azahav the middle road now that doesn't mean that one should on his own flip a coin so today it's monster tomorrow it's also the next day it's forget about it no it means there's a there is a middle road in life but how do i know that middle road i don't know what do i know i know a few words that i read in this book and i saw on this email and i saw him this year so that is where arov comes in we'll give the push up shot now and later we'll give a very unique shot i was told this morning is that you make yourself a rev and you don't have specus why not because he'll just tell you what to do it's very simple it's very simple but what if he tells me it's ulcer what if he talk so every rav obviously knows his constituents and knows how to deal with it and he knows who's willing and how willing who is holding at a place to be mahmir to be stringent to be makel to be lenient and the rav is the one with his dance with his secret with his wisdom to make that very that tightrope is really the type rope of life and that's really the job of and more so and i think the question was a personal rabbi and personal is is is so critical and crucial because as we mentioned a few moments ago your entire life is allah everything is allah problem is not everything are you willing to discuss with some big long bearded creature who you don't want to get within four feet of him for many reasons so if that's who you view is your love it might be time to find a new rough but your love has to be a person who you could talk to who you could approach and there's no better honor and joy that a rabbi has when uh someone will come over to him and ask him a personal question how do i deal with this what should i do what does halaqa say about this should do i have to be macmillan or can i be mako what should i do about this story and very often a lot of questions which we might think are are not halal very often they boil down to allah but the most important thing is to have the love that you respect the rav as we all know it's like a dumos of amalah because like hashem is like someone who is transmitting the word of god that doesn't mean that he's not going to make mistakes everyone makes mistakes in this world we all know that what that means is we're willing to accept what he's going to tell us and we're willing to follow what he's going to tell us and but most important is to be personal to be able to discuss and talk to him and i have seen myself in the short amount of time i said i teach aloha to the boys in yeshiva you see over the year the beginning of the year the questions are one type you know what do i do that i you know what broker do i make you know all the holy questions and uh do i need to x and by the end of the year you're starting to really get into things you know do i need to do this and i forgot this and i woke up late and you know i i feel bad don't feel bad you made mistakes what do you do about it and then you start to really get to know people and with being having a personal love that's where you could grow and that's where everyone could grow together and that's really the greatest way of being is to have that rough who's going to guide you and be that light for you along the way amazing rabbi unbelievable love the physical inspiration very important for everyone to take it upon themselves to make sure you have your love like the rabbi said so beautifully make sure that you connect with it make sure that you feel uh connected with him and it has time for you etc rabbi in your experience what do you say is the most common misconception of an activity which is permitted but people think isn't and vice versa that's a loaded question yeah that's a lovely question and i i can't say the most common because you know everything is common but i'm just going to give a few examples i put together a few examples this is you know this is uh actually a favorite of mine usually at the beginning of the year we we throw out a few cases and like to hear everyone thinks everything is mother and everything is us her and everything is the opposite so just just a few a few simple cases we'll start with one which is dear to me based on the first book that we wrote wine whiskey and aloha is that a bottle of wine a bottle of wine and i'll tell a tell a personal story in my life when i got engaged engagement party so a bottle of wine was opened and a nice bottle of wine and my future father hands me the bottle of wine and says be careful with it don't put it down there the waiters are not jewish i said sure so i took it you know few people had some drinks i didn't put it down but my future brother-in-law asked me for the bottle so maybe i was naive i thought he was included in the don't put it down i gave it to him i'mma get in trouble for this one i gave it to him and he took a drink and what did he do he put it down within a few seconds what's happening the waitress comes over picks up the bottle and is moving it over hal future mother-in-law eagle eye vision comes flying in from the kitchen makes the die for the battle and without anyone saying anything she's on the way to the kitchen with the bottle and there was someone there at the time i myself didn't know what to say and i wouldn't have said anything anyways in that situation someone was there and said no it's okay it's okay what do you mean it's okay she's not jewish no no it's okay what do you mean it's okay she's not jewish she picked up the bottle and she's walking with it so the reason why now we'll just fast forward to what's the first and most basic premise of all of yainesek of non-jews touching wine is what's the whole reason it is forbidden for non-jew to touch wine to move wine it's because they might pour it to avodahzar they may pour it to an idol says the gemara if you have a cork in a bottle can you pour wine to avoid the zara if this cork in a bottle it's not possible because there's a cork in the bottle it's impossible to pour it that way and therefore says the shalhonar says oh the place came and if there is a cork in the bottle now what does it mean cork in the bottle it does not mean it was never opened does not mean it's hermetically sealed it means there's a cover on the bottle raffle yashev said even if there's a piece of aluminum foil in the bottle it's not the way to serve avoid dessert that way so she could pick up that bottle walk all the way to the kitchen you saw her the whole time obviously if you didn't see her it could be different but you see the whole time that is 100 permitted and it might even be about to throw it out because this there's nothing i say might even be because there are some opinions based on kabbalah that are mahmir and everything but in the basic realm of allah that is perfectly fine and that's something that happens all the time now i will give a big disclaimer it's better often especially in this regard to be stringent because it is difficult that's why you wrote a whole book about it it is difficult and there are nuances and it is a wonderful idea to tell the non-jews tell the cleaning up don't touch the wine don't touch it this morning i was in a brisk and we had this whole shower there was a certain reason it's beautiful so it happens all the time and you know the conscious agencies at one time got into a little bit of a quabble with a certain maschiach because someone came over to me and asked me what's the status of the wine i told him it's fine because the cork was in and he came over to me so what are you doing our policies i said that's a beautiful you're right it should be the policy you should not let the guy touch it and you have to make a big deal and you have to yell at her not in front of everyone else still have to have manners but you have to make sure and that is that's just one simple example we'll give another example um we'll give a shabbos example beyer but you're separating on shabbos one of those things that until you learn about it like it doesn't bother me no harm no done you know there's like this interesting problem and job is to sift maybe we're like yeah we don't have a sifter and leave me alone but then we start hearing no any form of separation could be a problem of separating in chiapas so the simplest examples you're sitting there on your plate and you have a piece of meat uh coffee shop is honor of shabbos you have a piece of meat with a little bit of fat on it so what do you do on a regular tuesday you slice off the fat you move it to the side you pick up the piece of meat and you enjoy it add a little salt perhaps a drop of garlic okay to everyone their own taste but you move away the fat that's the normal way anchovies to do that i think according to everyone would be 100 forbidden and not only assert is unique an issue is biblically forbidden in times of ghazal we take you up to the three-story cliff throw you off the top take some racks throw on tabby's start moving throw some more racks we we take care of you okay oh it's only if there's warning and has to run it doesn't happen very often but okay just to point out it's quite quite severe so what do you do it's so simple are you allowed to cut you let it cut cutting wasn't a problem after you cut that fat what do you do now this is a visual we'll move to the camera here's our piece of meat and here's the fat so to cut it i didn't do anything it's the separating so if i go like this and i push up like that this is eraser if i take my fork in the left hand proper etiquette and because the right hand of the knife not usually and i pick up the piece of meat mother gummer because that's called absolutely something permitted something edible from something none from the bad the good from the bad in english so when i the simplest of actions now that's an action i'm hoping some people are hearing and saying wow that was so simple and it is so simple and once you learn it and once you do it two times now you know how to eat a piece of meat on chavez was that difficult was that constricting did that make your life so problematic absolutely not so you know in yeshiva we call it almost part of my language a stupid sin why do it why there's other things you could be busy with why why push away the fat just pick up just pick up the meat should we give one more example yeah please okay very good give one more example one more example i don't want to go controversial but uh it's not that i'm arguing but let's let's there's a mishabura that talks having a cup of coffee before davening one of uh more you know famous charizians mishna buras because the mr burra says no sugar and milk no sugar and milk and many students many are from june learns this mr brewer and says okay i'm gonna i'm gonna do it no sugar no milk and usually what happens is no coffee for nominee because many people again i'll be honest without the sugar it's not a coffee without the milk it's for sure not a coffee yeah i have one rabbit that yelled at me cold said that's the men drink it without sugar and milk i said okay so i'm not a man what do you want from me but the bottom line is i need a cup of coffee and that's what you would think when you read the text and is that correct it's the text of the mistake what could be more correct but the problem is when you look at the example and he says the meshur explains why is it also basically it's cause it's gaivo it's haudi what are you busy drinking something before you serve your creator which is very clear says if not all the price game and i don't say if not because this goes over time is that nowadays if to you a coffee without sugar and milk is not a coffee and i say to you because inertia all not to make this uh have to do with countries but there's a guy that sits in front of me every day and he sits there and has his black coffee no sugar no milk and it's normal and the smell of it makes me want to gag but but he drinks it without a problem okay so but for many of us americans without the sugar milk it's not a coffee so is it gaiva is it hottie of course not of course not now maybe if you start going and putting in your frothed milk and your caramel and your all the other different things you know maybe then but again just just simple examples that is it us or is it mature we have to just know what is the proper thing to do is it a misconception maybe maybe in there's many many more there's many more we could talk for the next i don't know how many hours but i think we have to move on unbelievable rabbi very very great examples uh uh and and it inspires one to continue looking and studying and delving into the realm of that leads me to my next question there are thousands of pages of allah there's many many safari many books what practical steps can we take to access the world of as a gradual process so it's great that you say gradual because that is the key to everything in life because if it's not gradual within i'll say a day to be nice but with shorter than that it's it's all out the window so the now the answer fought i don't know how many years turning time has been around but i think now it's about 15 months now 15. but i think the last five it's been more of a so let's go five you know six years ago the answer might have been go find the safer go find the book but now i i think the answer probably is there is so much out there so much out there anyone who's watching this wherever you found it whether it's on youtube or anytime podcast wherever you found it there's so much there also so much good stuff easy stuff simple stuff pictures graphics for every every geographic every dynamic easy intermediate difficult so fine to share and listen but how am i going to learn from this year why not listen and listen every day gradual it could be one cheer it could be a half a year it could be every other day it could be once a week but of course it doesn't let's just be careful it doesn't do away with the rav histofic you still need to have a rub and to not have a rob and i'd like to add on one that's what i said before i heard from reviews of elephants and artists israel uh tremendous tremendous everything i don't wanna give him a title because that's gonna diminish so we'll take a tremendous person and he was talking about this detail about having a rough and he said why do you need to have a love in your life so everyone says to ask them allah that's we're talking about tonight he says it's all true but you know i need to have a rav so that your family has a rabbinic source they look up to so that there is someone greater than what goes on in the mundane life and he is that source of transmission from the tower of the maishimi sinai and when you have a raw of the entire dynamic changes it's true the shilohs are important of course the shiram are important learning from us isn't important but you need to have a rough just to have the love just have the dynamic in your family so that your children know when there's a question it's not ah so is this allowed it's not allowed uh yesterday was motor today it's okay no it's not let's quickly let's do a quick google search i see this zone here says mutter i don't know okay someone says uh sir okay we can do it no so the children see that there's there's a rabbinic source and everything comes from such a source is just uh so incredibly important uh you know we'll end off with this you know this program is called tuesday's timely tour talks rabbit can you please leave us with some closing inspiring remarks for our listeners uh you know which is especially timely you know your final message to our broad audience okay timely sounds a little bit scary but just again i i don't want to say disclaimer some people probably heard you know certain things they thought were also remoter and now they're thinking great so i'm gonna go find everything his mother yeah he mentioned about having a rav but okay you know we'll send himself manas and um everything's gonna be fine but the truth is it goes so much deeper than that and that's really the theme and i'd like just to talk about it for one moment is that that mishna of so the simple explanation is make yourself a rabbi but i saw us on a friend of mine told me today there's a major schmool that says a little bit deeper he says make yourself into a rebbe make yourself into arab then list alec minas when you know what to do there is no greater symbol i subsequently found than the very very hush of saver pesky chivas he quotes the final ramban the entire arakayam and the rama says over there he ends with cryptic words the toy believe mishna then the good heart feasts always interesting words and he he elaborates and it's not the time but he basically points out based on apostate mishleigh that when you don't know what to do it's a terrible place to be terrible place to be and that is he based on the pause i call you may anira him that these are my ani i'm poor it's terrible i don't know what to do and we can make it simpler on the words of that in simcha kataras vegas what brings one joy clarity clarity in all areas of life and is one of those areas so to bring it into life is incredibly important but once it's in our lives not to be fumbling and not to not know what to do because you don't know what to do then everything just becomes again it's all mother it's all other it's all i don't know and and it just and then you know i'll be honest usually what happens everything becomes mother and then you always have that like nagging issue and then it comes you know a tish above and a young kipper and you tell god oh you know i'm going to be a little bit better and it shouldn't be that way it shouldn't be that way when you have the rav and you have someone to teach you or you make yourself the rebbe you listen to a shirt you read a good book you have questions you ask questions then you start to realize why do things that are user why that case of the meat i think is such a simple example and there's we could talk forever about these examples and that's usually what we try to do is just give you know everyone says taking challenge friday night is so difficult there's so many rules there's a five conditions of returning and this and then like after you realize it's like ah so i just take the challenge and just don't just like keep my hand on it says ramesha feinstein serve the child and put it back in and just make sure it was cooked and make sure the thing was covered and that's it ah once you learn how to do something it's really not so difficult and it's more important just to realize that when you make yourself into that rav it's the salinas and it's a totally different life and and with this i'll conclude why is it totally different life especially now you said timely we're in the three weeks we're moving towards tisha b'av and we know many reasons for the khoraban but to give a generic reason is because hashem is not in our life enough he's not there we lost him he lost his house we lost the temple he's not in our life enough and how do we bring god into our life it's a very difficult thing because what do you mean i say barak hashem a thousand times today i say thank you hashem i got the stickers i send the emojis i do everything what do you mean he's not in my life the answer sometimes is he's in your life when he's there and then as soon as you don't want him there he goes into a little box you put him away if your life is a life allah if you realize that everything goes with allah and you realize okay i have to ask questions i have to learn all of a sudden god becomes part of your life you're going on a vacation that's a question is there a minion does there have to be a minion maybe it doesn't have to be a minion i didn't just give an answer maybe it doesn't have to be a minion do how far do i have to travel i'm stopping at the rest stop now it's before all of a sudden hashem is automatically part of your life i mean i allowed to buy that cup of coffee at starbucks could i not buy it maybe i could there's so many different areas that as you bring into your life hashem automatically it's almost like some people say well i don't want him there keep him out automatically he comes somewhere part of your life and the more he becomes part of your life hopefully will be another way to merit that he'll finally have his house back then he remained with the building of mashiach with all this wonderful terror that we're spreading together thank you so much for having me rabbi slansky wow what is it what energy we really really enjoyed today's program it was really inspiring you really brought a lot of clarity on this topic and we want to remind everyone every single tuesday special guest that tuesday's timely torah talks and robbie slancy once again thank you