Chumera On Pesach & Beyond | Rabbi Anthony Manning

coming. Welcome everybody. If I could ask you please to turn off your phones. If I could thank our sponsors for the academic year the Shir sponsored in loving memory of Zelik bin Kaman and Branabas branda and we we definitely thank the sponsors and wish it should be an ali for the namas. Um I'd like to talk to you about not about spec specifically although we will touch on a few but I find that there are often two types of sh there's shirim which is telling us all the things that we can't do on pes and then there are shirim that are telling everybody to calm down and not be so hard on themselves because a lot of what they don't do is not actually required not to do. I want to talk a little bit today about the good reasons and the bad reasons for adopting generally because this is a very good time of year to discuss that because why is it a good time of year? Because there is something that is [Music] called or sometimes it is a it is a whole category which people recognize. Let me give you two examples which we could have picked many different ones but they're they're interesting examples because they bring up some of the hakic issues as well. As we talk through this topic today I want to not just talk in abstract about but bring in some of the pes issues that come in as we discuss this. Let's take an innocent looking ch of the end in number one. He says porcelain. Do you have to take tom from that you import? They're called porcelain. And they're very similar in some ways to to glass. They're glazed in some way. Meaning porcelain is made from clay but it's produced in a certain way but with an excessive heat in the kiln that gives it a glazed property. So he says, "Okay, I'll tell you. I don't think that they need to go to the mikvah before you use them because even when they bought from a non-Jewish because they're made from clay and anything made from clay, made from urban wear does not need. It's a relatively straightforward chilah. They don't need to go to the mikvah. There is a min these days to take some glazed pottery to the mikvah but that's based on a a time when the glaze was very thick and effectively they were like glass kin but now there are many people who don't take the glazed pottery some do I do but some don't okay fine but then he says and while we're talking about horse lane let me tell you something else since this has come now to our attention I'm going to give you another. He's excited. He's given you one, one leniency. I'm going to give you another one. He says, I've heard from my father. Even though these porcelain china um the porcelain cups and plates are all made from earnware they are not compared to earnware that they don't pick up t they don't pick up taste if you use them for you could use them for he says since they're very smooth they're very shiny even though they're made from they're made from further loyal they don't uh pick up taste is like um like glass vessels that don't pick up taste the loyal we know the glass doesn't pick high time and we he brings the and according to the strict letter of the law all you need to do between or inain vessels is just to give them a good rinse But everybody doesn't do that. Everybody buys new. Everybody has special crockery, special cups, special plates um for pes and doesn't use their regular porcelain plates and he just presents it as like a known thing meaning even though in all other areas he says as far as he's concerned you don't need separate dishes in porcelain from milkix and fleshik I'm not getting into the sacer okay can we all settle settle down a bit it's a bit noisy today um even though you don't need it but pes you need it why do you need it it's it's it speaks for itself so we'll see what is why why is that a thing I give you another example which is brought down uh and brought you many examples this is but it appears in many and he brings quotes from the that when he gets mixed into anything okay whether It's or meaning like with like so let's say flower mixed with flour. Okay or a little bit of that gets into something which is not flour meaning on and we'll see what that is. Is it is it prohibited one in a thousand one in a million? One in a billion. Okay. And I'll tell you exactly why Rav Pasin's this way because the normal rule that we have is whenever it comes to a Torah prohibition when one thing is mixed with another of the same type then it's it prohibits even in the tiniest amount. If you put let's say trafe milk into kosher milk, camel milk, camel's milk into cow's milk, even a drop rest of the year, even a drop of camel's milk will tra it even in a small amount shalom. But when it comes to a different thing, you put a little bit of into milk by mistake. A little bit of meat gravy goes into milk. But no, it it's much more lenient. We only prohibit when you can taste you can taste the actual foreign ingredient. Why are we more lenient with a different ingredient than with the same type? And so there are different ways of looking at this because you can say that milk and meat are fighting each other. They're two different species. So when the milk overcomes the meat and you can't taste the meat anymore, so then it's bottled. Then you don't have a problem anymore. But milk and milk, they're not fighting each other. Milk and milk are supporting each other on a certain level. So even with a tiny little bit amount, then it's it's a problem. So that's during the normal the rest of the year. the but we make a gazer on even with something which is even which something is a different type and here he calls it I'm not sure there's a difference between the reason two reasons number one when you eat on pes very unusually the most of the trait food that we would ever come across in our daily lives would just would be a prohibited For either when you come across a food which is prohibited with one of those 36 rare cores prohibitions but pes comet is one of them the bahana and it's also bahana even the tiniest little bit is prohibited to eat and to to get benefit from not even to eat but you can't even get benefit from pesa you can get benefits from milk and meat you can get benefit from trace meat you can sell trace meat you can but you can't get benefit milk and meat might a little bit different it could be depending on how it's made but you can't get benefit from so we have it's presented as a compli now I have divided up three kinds of legitimate on pes when I say legitimate I mean there are stam certain things things that people do because they're just obsessive about it and I understand that there's a psychological need there and there's a psychological solution there it's not a haki problem with a hakic solution um but there are three types of legitimate humras And I've divided them into where we have to understand this is not just a that you can pick and choose. It's built in to the system on PES. It's different on PES. Then I what I call min based where this is not really part of the systemically this thing is really kosher but there's a min that we don't eat this or use this on. We'll see why that might be. And then what I've called social don't have any basis but people do them anyway. Minhag based hummus may not have hakic basis but they have hakic support. There are postkim that come to support them. So we need to try and work out when do they become destructive when do they become a problem? when we're dealing with minhagim and based on either social or or custom issues, when can we turn around and say actually this is causing more problems than it solves. But we need to make sure that we know are real and when we say we don't mean like an extra thing that you do, but everybody has to do this on pes because it's built into the hakic system. So let me give you an example. Um look at number three. We talked we touched on this slightly last week but let's look at it in a little bit more detail. Egg matzahas matzahas made with non with needed with not just water or not with water I should say but with fruit juice or wine or eggs this is a which is needed with wine with oil with honey we're not bothered about that can't becomes flour plus water equals if you leave it long Flour plus eggs or flour plus fruit juice or flour plus plus wine is not and this is the reason of mayus because it's fruit juice it's not waterme the gmorra is very clear fruit juice does not create and yet we have another gmorra a little bit later on number four the You may not make dough on pes using wine or oil and uh or or honeyash. And if you did that, you have to burn it immediately. It becomes immediate. If you make uh mix flour with fruit juice or flour with wine, immediately said it can be eaten, but you have to be quick. meaning it's faster than 18 minutes. You got to get it in there. You got to get get it and eat it because otherwise it will become hummus. So what's going on? You have two opposite garas. One gamarra says that whatever you do with fruit juice and flour will not become hummus. Another gamarra says it's either immediate comets or it's danger of being comets and you better look after it. You don't have 18 minutes. You better eat it quick. This is on pes. It's like not before pes. So how do you how do you reconcile? How do you harmonize these two gummoras? So here you have a very classic debate. Um the sparadim say that the reconciliation is as follows. May perus fruit juice with no water is fine. Fruit juice with water is the one that the second gamorra was talking about. That's more dangerous. The ashkanazim is saying no. The difference is as follows. Look at number five. Rashi is why what are we worrying about in this? The second we looked at that you can't add fruit juice apparently becomes says it's very quick very close to become you don't have the 18 minutes you can't stop it you can't guard it and when we had another earlier that seemed to say it was not a problem like that's not a problem why wants to say that if you use mayus when it said you can it doesn't mean you can it means it's not real you don't you don't have courage on that comet okay it's not it's good to familiar ourselves with these ideas means it's a it's a type of it's a kind of um sort of messed up it's not proper means it's bad it's it's like a offt and and and it becomes you know if you use may perish you can't stop it. So according to Rashi, how do you reconcile these two garas that both gumas say you can't have it but the one which was more lenient seems to say well it's just not cur but it's still bad and it's still prohibited and you can't eat it. Maybe it's the rice and maybe it's raon but the rambam and the sparum say no you reconcile these two gammoras in very different ways. The one that says it's okay means it's okay. The one that says it's not okay is talking about a case where you mix in a little bit of water. That's when it's not okay. But if it's pure fruit juice it's fine. So who do you follow? Very straightforward. Number seven. Look at number seven. The ram goes like the spar. Basically says it's fine if you only have fruit juice as long as you have no water. Says of course you can't use it for sale night because it's not like an oni. It's not poor person's bread. It is an enriched bread. Number seven. If you have water, sorry, fruit juice with no water in your in your kneading. They are not a problem at all. You can eat them with impunity on if it's it's made with honey or wine or fruit juice. Even if you leave the dough to to rise the whole day long, it's not a problem. Eat it on second, but you're not. So then he comes in in the next may what if it's with eggs or other kinds of juice they're all fine no problem it's called and then the says in our country we don't we don't use even to coat the mat with etc meaning he's telling you this is not Just this is a requirement. If you are Ashkanazi, you may not um you may not eat those mats made with us in unless you're really in a bind. You have a sick person who can't eat regular matzah or an old person who can't chew regular matzah, you can eat matzah. Okay. So here you have two clear positions. There's the spari position which is lenient. The has a position which is strict but it's not something you can compromise on. It's not something you can say oh this is ridiculous. I'm not going to listen to that. It's in now if if we pasan as we Ashkanazim I'm talking for Ashkanazim that it's a problem then why can you give it to an old person? Why can you give it to a sick person? You know they also have to keep if it's pro it's prohibited it's prohibited. Is it hot in here? Does someone know how to turn the air conditioning on? Can you ask the lady outside please if she can turn on the air conditioning windows a possibility? We can let's start with the windows and see how we get on. Okay. But yeah, but the people next to the windows will then get okay. Why can you why can why can we give it to elderly people? Because the the later Mafim explained the not explains and really rashi is the only opinion that says it's a problem. really even most of the Ashkenazi rishonim say it's not a problem they agree with the other way of looking at it so here you have ara which is a real but it's it's a very minority opinion so ashkenazim stick to it but we are allowed to be lenient says there are in certain situations so there you have two different opinions woven into the hakic system they're not min based there's different ways of reading those two garas and how you harmonize them that's one example let me give you another example um 18minute matas why are matsas so expensive some matzas. Well, if you've ever been to a matzah factory, you will know that what happens is, you know, they have the flower that comes out, a hand magically appears through a window with a bowl of flour. Another hand pours water in it and then they start the clock and then they have to get those matzas into the oven within 18 minutes. They have to knead them. They have to spread them. They have to do all the holes and they have to get them in with 18 minutes. What happens after 18 minutes? The clock stops and everything shuts down. Everything gets cleaned, all the machinery gets cleaned, all the surfaces get cleaned, and they spend 30, 40 minutes cleaning everything down. And then repeat, do the whole thing again. So for every 18 minutes of matza making, there's at least a half an hour, 45 minutes of cleaning and and avoiding any contamination. That's very expensive if you think about it. The whole factory is not in use for the majority of the time. Why do we do this? So have a look at number eight. says this to the is as follows that itself whether it's in like you know flour with other flour it prohibits in the tiniest tiniest amount on unlike regular let's say which is coring like rock however comes before there should be a it should be bottled meaning when we talk about not being bottled even in a thousand even in a million we talk about whether that really is a million in a minute that's only on pes butts before pes is not really today there is no hakic category called today because it's not pes you can't call something you're going to call ones. So if it gets mixed in, if a little bit of stick flour gets mixed in to pes flour today and it all gets cooked and and it's all mixed together and you can't find it on pes, it should be fine. It's bottled. It's completely bottled. It's gone. So why is there an issue? Why do we need 80-minute matsas? Let's make the masses and then let's keep making the masses. And if there's a tiny tiny little bit of dough that gets mixed in with all the other dough and it's a little bit of tiny speck of hummus with all the who cares. It's all bottled. It's all gone. It's finished. What's the problem? So, look in Rashi. Rashi explains that we're extra extra strict. Okay. So, there is a one view. He says if it's if even if it's mixed in before it's still even though with a regular we're more if you can't taste the prohibited thing thenically it's not relevant. we are very very strict when it comes to ones because of the and he makes a good point. He says, "Yeah, but what about excuse me, what about what about prohibited fats? They're also what about blood? They're also carries. Why don't we have these prohibitive restrictions, these when it comes to these other things which are and he says because we we're used to staying away from them. You see a speck of blood, you run a mile. You don't get close to never gets close to your kitchen. It's removed in the manufacturing process. It's it's far away. You're used to eating cookies the whole year round. There's nothing more natural than picking up a cookie and eating it. Unless of course you're gluten-free or on a diet. Okay, both of which are complicated. Okay, but he says that we're on Pes not just because it's but because we're used to eating. We're used to eating crumbs and therefore we're extra m. So even though technically speaking something which is bottle before pesak comes in is all is bottle and we don't have to worry about it and it's only on pesak that we have to worry about. Nevertheless, we're Mahme we're Mahme on many things and the uh the 18 mini mats is a very good example. Even though technically speaking the dough that will get mixed into it could you could argue that this bottle we don't want to rely on ble I remember um the um lapian dilopian dilopian used to say in shim he says that you don't rely on ble we'll see in a minute could be what's called it it could reawaken and uh come back to life well maybe I'll mention that now when you have a mixture of two things which are what's called yavves which means They are not all dissolved into each other. Let's say you have a stick bisli mixed in with a thousand peslies. Okay, don't know what the plural bisley is. Bits of bislies and they all look identical. So you say okay on pes clearly will be prohibited. You drop one bisley into a thousand pes they're all prohibited. Before pes it's bottle because there's no such thing as hum before pes. Ah, however we pass and show from our past that on Pes itself it's what's called that's another of PES that it comes back to life. The thing that before Pes would have been bottled would have been subdued is still there. There's a little bisley in there. You just can't see it but it's there and it comes back to life to haunt you. Okay, on Pes and that's called and we pass in that way. However, when it comes to meaning you haven't got a piece in lots of pieces but it's dissolved together two liquids two and a pes thick liquid dissolve together or flour all mixed together that's called and even on pes it doesn't come back to life denin used to say that they bake their cakes in a stick oven he said his wife bakes the I don't know if he baked them I think his wife baked them in a stick oven they clean the oven before pes he said and make sure there's bits of comet's going to fall in because bits of comets either are not mixed in or the veneer they'll come back to horn you on pes but if it's just the taste it's the time it's just the whatever the oven picks up from the stick taste in the walls he says no problem whatsoever it's all bottle bishim it's it's not even there in terms of real mash and therefore that's what he does they don't use their oven no I'm not pasing that you should do this and you can ask your local Orthodox rabbi he'll probably go faint and and collapse if you tell him that that's what Dan Loppin used to do. But that is what Dian Lppin used to do. He passed away maybe 15 years ago, something like this. I remember going to the in the ' 90s and and he was this is what he explained that he did. However, there are many not everybody is make like that. We'll see that there are many people who are even but certainly there are a number of and I've brought them here on page three real before we get into leniences. For example, we said on PES itself, the tiniest amount of of KTZ is is not bottled even in a million. We'll see if that really means a million. Um where KTS falls into a mixture before PES, it is bottled, but it could come back to life. If it's Yavesh Yavesh, even if it's and it's all blended in, we'll see it doesn't come back to life, but many people are not happy with it. Certain leniences that we normally have cashering, very narrow things that we need to clean. People say for pes the mag says you can't do it for pes another good example is you all know this if you cook by mistake your milk in your fleshic pot is the milk tray yes yes or no what will the rabb ask when's the last time you used your fleshic pot if you haven't used your fleshic pot for more than 24 hours the halaka is very simple the food is kosher the pan is trfe because you cook milk in your fleshic pot. But the milk itself is not is not is not so tra because it all it's picked up from the walls of the vessel are gum. It's tasted as gone bad if you like on pes we're not make for this not a if you cook on pes by mistake with your stick pot even if it hasn't been used for 24 hours the food is straight okay that's another what happens if you don't know whether your pot was used within the last 24 hours and I picked a pot but I I don't honestly remember is this a pot I did use is this a pot I didn't use what do we say stam kalin Ano? If in doubt, it's fine. Why? Because we can assume that most pots were made 24 hours used 24 hours or more before. If you know specifically you used this pot, then obviously you can't assume that. But if you don't know, then it's fine. Not with hummus. If you don't know when this pot was last used or I can't remember, maybe was used yesterday, maybe it was a week ago. No good. We don't say stalem. Even if you say I don't know, and then you use 10 minutes later you say, oh no, I think I've remembered now. No, sorry. It's too late. It's too late. So there are lots of hummus baked in for one of a better word into the halak system and explained that for pes there is a practice to be for minority opinions in the ronim opinions that we don't normally pass alike on pes will bring them out and that is legitimate because we're dealing with something that is that is we're dealing with you can't benefit that is something we normally eat. Okay. So there are lots of hakas which are very much part of the of the framework. But then there are minhagim. These are minhagim that some of us have and some of us don't have. For example, gross. We had a whole shir on gross. I'm not going to have a repeat now all the stuff about gross. The main source for gross is the alterbi. You'll know the labas are very serious about gross. Um and the reason for gross is either they're worried that unbaked flour inside the mats would not be baked properly and then on pes would when it came into contact with water would become because don't forget that brings that the maximum width width of a of a matzah is a te your mats can be this thick. So if your mats are this thick yes there could be some little guy in the middle there that didn't quite make it and didn't catch bait. Of course, now our matsas are beaten to death and they're as thin as crackers and there's much less chance of that happening. The second concern he had was that flower dust would coat the matzas when they make the matzahas which are nice and pastic. They put them in the corner and then they'd be making more flour and more matzah and the flower dust would fly around and and and coat the top of the matas and when you put that in your soup, oi make comets because that's flour. Again, today that can't happen given the that everything is kept hermetically sealed and separate. But many people mahmed now for Gabbr even the alterbi says that that's only with water. When it comes to jam it has something that doesn't have a water content. Maybe jam can have a water content. Something that's pure not water butter um avocado something like that. There's no water in it. He said of course you don't have to be mak there people are still mahm for gross. Even when it comes to mapus even though the the whole the origin of the min if you like was never for things which are made perus people are strict on that as well. But again, is that a legitimate min? Yes, millions of people within cloud Israel keep that min even though there's no obligation to keep that min. And we'll see you don't mess you don't laugh at other people's min. What about water sources used on Pesak? So there was a hummus that came up in uh in the middle ages and beyond that the non-Jews would make beer in the local river and they would throw out their hops and throw out the beer that they weren't using or whatever and the the the river would have bits of barley bits of beer floating in it and of course the Jews would then take from the water on Pesak and who knows it could be water which was mixed with beer mixed with barley and we said it's osa even in a tiny amount on pesak is osa mashu so what's a mashu is a mashu like even one in a million even one in a billion. So as we all know this has become a big political uh you know football and on uh on Pesak there are religious parties that insist and this is as far as I'm aware what happens in that we do not get water anymore from the Knesset because someone might have dropped some crumbs in the Knesset and the water instead comes from the aquifers in the caner. Sorry, not the kineset. The kiner. Sorry. You know what I've been thinking about when I'm not preparing my shar. We don't get anything useful on pesa from the kineset. From the ker, excuse me. We don't get water. We don't take water from the keratic because we're we're worried that this is the rabbak wrote a chuba and said this is just not a concern. It's just not a concern. So someone should drop a little bit of comets on Pesak. Meaning if they dropped it the week before Pesak, it's all dissolved. It's for sure bottled millions and billions, a crumb on Pesak is going to make itself all the way through the system, filtered however many times it's filtered and come out of my sack, my my t my tap. There's no concern of that. Oh, okay. People insist on it. I saw once a recommendation that if you're worried about it, you can put a sock on the top of your tap so that you can filter it again. Preferably one that's been laundered. But but you know a lot a lot of uh a lot of uh political capital is used by some of the religious parties to insist on this. Is this a which is worth we'll see in a minute how to balance this. Is this something we really want to use that political capital for or we are we worried about other things when it's just not a problem at all on pes maybe it was more of a problem when you lived in a village and you know three hours before the non-Jews have poured beer into the water and then you come and take from the water. It makes sense that it's a question today. There is no uh concern but nevertheless it remains a min. It's a valid min but it's it's some ways there there are downsides. We'll see how that works. Another one I brought here on the top of page four. Not eating dairy on pesa. Some people say you shouldn't eat dairy on pesak. Why? On the basis that the dairy foods are more likely to mix with hummus. Is that true? Not in today's world of cashous supervision. There is even a and people misunderstand this. Can you drink milk from a cow that has been milked on Pesak and fed KTZ? What could the problem be? The comets doesn't get from the cow's mouth into the cow's digestive system into the cow's udders and come out through the milk. There's no in the milk. So why could there possibly be a problem? So look at number 10 says the brewer what about milk from an animal that's eating even if it belongs to a non-Jew and the non-Jew is completely oblivious there is a real on this and the prim says no I can only eat the milk drink the milk from this cow 24 hours after the cow ate from the others who were make and say no it's not a problem even if the the cow ate comets this morning if you milk it this afternoon if the if the non-Jewish farmer milks it it's fine as long as long as you know the cow is regularly eating on the morning and the evening things which are not meaning the cow's diet is a mixture Comets and not comets. Then he says you can drink the milk according to these leaning indep. What's going on here? What what is going on here? What about the eggs for the chickens? You feed chickens. It's the same idea. Can you eat the eggs that they lay on pes? Ah, so sometimes the eggs can have on them and you need to wash them. Okay. Yeah. again is what what's inside an egg cannot be kts because the kts can't get through the digestive system of the bird into the egg. What's going on here that people don't realize is a completely different issue which is there's a discussion in the gammorra that if you have an animal which is raised purely on food which is prohibited to benefit from. Does that animal become prohibited to benefit from? because its entire sustenance is from something that's prohibited to benefit from. That's got nothing to do with pes. That's got nothing to do with it's got nothing to do with you know any of the things we've been discussing so far. But it's a legitimate question. And here the question is so are we going to say since is prohibited to benefit from which it is. So this becomes an animal which now may be on some level prohibited to benefit from. We're not worried about in the milk. we worried about that other and some postkimmer say no that other doesn't apply here certainly not if the animal has multiple sources of food etc because then you can say what's called zorim um but you can see here this is in the mishnabu this is not some mishas the mishnaber is asking maybe on pes we'll bring from another area of halaka and apply it to aikra on pes um and uh and this has found its way into different minhagen Uh most people have no problem with this and today almost everything we eat on pes has been milked before pes and the eggs have been laid before pes um and therefore it's not relevant but I brought you some others as well. Some people don't eat dried fruit on pes that's a min. Why? Well I don't know. They're not usually sure. Maybe it used to be processed with flour. Maybe it is today. Maybe it's not today. People don't eat garlic on pesaf. They've usually got no clue why. Maybe it used to be made with beer. Somebody explained to me once that people used to hang garlic to dry which my wife does. We have garlic hanging to dry. But our garlic hangs outside. You could hang garlic over your stove and all year round you're cooking on the stove and the garlic is I mean it would pick up a taste of all the food. I'm saying again, is that a real reason? I I I don't know. Probably not. Uh people should wash the eggs. Okay, I get it. There's schmutz on the eggs. Maybe it's comets from the chicken coop. Some people peel all the vegetables in case something got on the vegetables. Some people only eat matzah on Saturday night, not the rest of Pes, which we had a whole she on, which on the one hand is is a problem because there may be a mitzvah to eat matzah all pes long all seven days, the lagon and others. On the other hand, you get this. The one thing in your pes cupboard which is most likely in theory to be hummed is your matzah. Meaning how how could your carrots really be hums? You know, you wash them, they're clean, but your matzah, if it went wrong, is most likely to be hummus. Now today, the chances of your matzah going wrong is so minimal because it's so supervised. Back in the day, it was Barl and Schmeerl who made matsas down in the m who knows what they were doing and whether they were doing it right, whether they were doing it wrong, etc., etc. And therefore, there are those who are nervous about eating matzah. Again to quote Dan Lopeia, I asked him once whether he has machine matzers or round hand maters at his seder and I remember asking him I remember where I was on the street when I asked him dopian and he said of course machine masses. So I said, "Why don't you like hangman says? It's much less traditional. It's like so he looked to me. He says, "I don't like comets at my seder." And basically that's how he Okay, that's fine. And then there are the social humras mission. We won't eat in anybody else's house. Now really if you want to take that to its extreme and logical extreme means you're not going to eat anybody else's food no matter someone's house but even processed food even food that you buy in a shop you shouldn't be eating anything that's processed because you didn't make it and indeed kabad don't buy anything processed pretty much any maybe they'll make wine you know they won't make that wine for pes okay but they don't buy any processed foods um there's a very interesting article by ravona Ree about why this unfriendly min of not missing of not eating with other people arose and whether it's legitimate when it's not legitimate etc etc but the I call that more of a socialra rather than a hakicra um because it's uh it's not really based on any hakic issue anyone who is a shabas Jew has an ammon that their food is kosher the whole year round and pes is is no different um but we see even based in halaka some of these ideas have a look for a second in number 12 and we're going to bring you some really strong sources now as to as to where the recognizes these extremes. Says the beer had quoted by the alterb and others. The says somebody who is careful not to eat even a tiniest tiniest tiniest bit of he has a an extra against sinning for the rest of the year. Now again, we're not naive and silly to think that just because you have every in the book on Pesak, then you're going to be the most honest and god-fearing and person, but it doesn't do any harm says the will be contaminating in some cabalistic in some mystical way. And therefore, that hak on pes can be a very strong sense. Maybe he means that the shmeir, the seriousness that you take it will will will go with you into the rest of the year and you'll treat other that way. That's not what he says, but that is something which is often quoted. Number 13, people have to scrub the walls, to scrape the walls and the chairs just because they touched comets. Now guys, there's no comets on the walls. If someone splashed comets on the walls, it's not edible anymore. And even if it were edible, who's walking around licking your walls? But but you know what the says the he says they're not crazy. These people they have on what to rely what's he talking about? Interestingly the Mishna talks about the minagim on pes and sukus. And it said on Shukas and Pesak they give a good clean because he's gonna be used by lots of people. But on Pesak they repaint everything before Pesak. Ah you see so if you turn around and say your wife's driving you with sugar we need the house painted before Pes. So she can say look the B mikdash. I'm sure it looked very nice but they still repainted it before Pes. So the is saying that there is a war to rely in many of these cases. Number 14 when he says don't mock other people's says don't say and it's an extra don't be too rooted in that because he explains in the sh number 15 the Jewish people are very and they have a a a tendency for in a positive way. So let's talk about that. Let's now talk for 20 minutes about the back and forth. Why would you want to be Mahmed? Why is it a positive thing to be Mahm? So I'm going to give you six or seven reasons why being Makm is very good and six or seven reasons why being Mahmed can be quite dangerous. Okay, so let's let's do do these you know one after the other. So the place to start with this is Mish look at number 16 how precious. If you want to be and pull away from any potential danger when it comes to that means you should be always be concerned for minority opinions. We'll get back to this if the reason seems clear to you. We'll see what that is in a minute. So even if you know especially maybe only if you know that that's not really the and this is introducing our second part here it's only on condition that yourra doesn't result in a leniency because sometimes people lose all perspective and their legitimate which shouldn't be mocked actually causes more of a problem than it solves. But if you can be authentic, you should be in all questions even when you want to be you could be lenient. And the rabbis have explained to us says in the my soul never became what is he talking about? Not in terms of sort of gross actual. He means I never ate a piece of meat on which there was even a shil. The minute there's a shil says I don't want it. Now this is nothing to do with couscous. Coscos is when somebody has an old dying old cow which is almost certainly a trafer and you look at it and you think this cow's got minutes never mind hours. And someone says she cost means she quickly because if you wait five 10 minutes it'll die and then you're stuck meaning I don't want I I don't want to eat that cow even if it's technically kosher all of these examples they're clearly clearly permitted but this person wants to be on themselves just because for all the rest of the Jews it's Okay. For people who want to be extra careful or they want to avoid anything negative, anything negative, anything which looks like, looks like or looks like, looks like, etc. And he brings the example here about I'm not going to read it inside, he kept from one meal to the next fleshik even though his father who he praises enormously kept 24 hours between milk and fleshik and milk 24 hours. And he says, "My father was like wine and I am like vinegar, the son of wine, but I don't keep that. I don't keep that." He didn't feel it was a binding, but he praised his father. He didn't critique his father for this. And therefore, I'm going to bring you five or six reasons why is a very positive thing. It could be a mitzvah. I love God, a person might say, so much. I'm so excited, infused, positive about the hakic system. Meaning the hakic system represents to an orthodox Jew hashem. Okay, it's complicated. There's back and forth and analysis, but at the end of the day, it's hashem. Why would I not want to get deeper and deeper into this hakic system? And my urge for might come from a place of hashem. Of course, the hakic system is also leniency as well as stringency, but it could come from or I don't want to take a chance. Why would I risk it? This is too awesome. The responsibility is too great. I sometimes give a marshall, if you come to my house and you say, you know, I have a headache. Do you have a Tylenol? And I say, no problem. Go upstairs, you know, in my medicine cabin and there's a little pot. I take them out of the pot, but it's okay. The Tylon are on the left. But don't take the little white pills on the right because they're arsenic and I have arsenic. Why do you have arsenic? Good question. Okay. Cyanide. They're cyanide. They look a bit similar, but don't worry because the Tylenol's on the left and the and the cyanide's on the right. I'm pretty sure the arsenic's on the I Yeah, I'm 99 I'm No, no, I am 99.9% positive. All of a sudden, like your headache is gone. No headaches. I'm not taking any chances. What do you mean? No, but come on. It's a 0.01% chance that you'll take the sign. You're a shamim. I'm not going to risk it. If it might be tr it might be tr I don't want to eat it to you. I want to push not just for the letter of the law but the spirit of the law. Okay. So too says number 17. We may or may not agree with this statement but he says anyone who has a pure soul very pure soul. He can tell that because he's always trying to do he's trying to do extra anyone whose soul is not so developed and perfected. He's trying to do leniencies. This is a good way to test yourself says the early 20th century. If you're constantly looking for leniences, he says that might be a problem in your on why aren't you constantly looking? He says for F2 to avoid safriskers. The briskers don't really accept the says there's this opinion and this opinion and through the process we pass an X. You can rely on the you can go to Shamayim after 120 years and say I didn't decide. I relied on the briskers are worried. Well, what if he's wrong? What if he's wrong? What if when I go to Shamim, you know, they turn around to me and say, "Well, I'm sorry you relied on the shor because that's not the as we passing it in heaven." Now, Mushie Feinstein would say, "Well, that doesn't matter. That is the like they're passing it on earth." And therefore, you can you can be completely confident that the brisk say, "No, how do I know?" There's a very famous story that's brought down by the the um in the the famous book my uncle which was based on the mccor of raor ed. He says the broom in the loan used to go first night sukas first night seda to the to briska and second night seda to the niv the other rasha. So the first night when they were with the briskers, they waited till the latest possible time when it was nack to make sure that there was no question they had a obligation to eat and they ate the biggest possible shear of matzah in the smallest possible manner of time and they stuffed it all in and then at the end of the sedime brisk went who knows whether we even did any mitzvah tonight. The second night they would go to the mitzvah and he'd start at a normal time and he'd normal and he'd eat and at the end he'd say we did so many mitzvah this evening like two different world views looking at things in different ways. Okay. Um the irony is that by mistake they switch their graves and the gravestone of one is on the other and they switch like that in in morsel cemetery. It's an interesting uh I mean they were they were colleagues they weren't enemies but nevertheless they're very different. So avoiding suffic if you learn something and it it seems that way to you. Let me explain what he means. Let's say you learn a sugic issue in the Gmorra and you learn it and and as you learn it you think the the answer has to be this. It has to be X. this is how I learned the suga and you look it up in the can and you see it's not like we said it's more lenient but then you say but look my view is just making this up the ritzvah's opinion he reads the gmorrah like I read the garra like I assumed everyone had to read the garra and he comes out stringently so that's called tamira meaning your nama is in the right sort of vibe with the way the rit wrote learns the gumra that's a great reason for you to be mhmed said the mash because your nama is in sync with that strict opinion. You didn't even realize it, but that's how you learn the sug opinion. Then look at number 18. Beautiful. There's a whole garra that talks about you should have your special mitzvah. The amar discussing number 18 I should get my he says I kept I ate punctiliously I think I should get my special place in because of my focus in a never walked says I never walked four hours without my head cut My thing was says my thing was meaning everybody has their special mitzvah says the mitzvah number 19 to explain this even though each of these rabbis kept the other mitzvah as well to the best of their ability there should be one mitzvah that you do with every little tiny [Music] detail. Meaning, we all do our best whenever we can, but we make mistakes and we take shortcuts every now and then. He says, "But there should be one mitzvah in life, which is your mitzvah." And when you go to Alam Haba, you can turn around and say, "I never took any shortcuts on that mitzvah. I did everything. So you can find whichever is the mitzvah that connects with you and that's a real idea that you should keep all the mitzvah but your special mitzvah says etc. Um the last two things I brought you here sometimes the says says the is but if you want to be you get a okay who doesn't want to have a bra? So maybe it's saying sometimes there are reasons you're not allowed to be m but here you are and you're going to get a bra. But there's no question is something that appears in many not all cases. And sometimes it appears in the wording someone who is a nephish should be what's a bffish the original context of that in Mish a bffish is someone who eats a lot of food. He's got a healthy appetite. But all by the time of kazal it became known as someone who's concerned for their soul. a bal nephesh someone who is on an extra level should be mahmir. Um but there again how does that work? I remember Bobby Hill was a teacher in London and a very master teacher and I remember him often saying nephesh should be mahm but who am I to consider myself a bal nephesh which leads us into the the next part which is there could be a certain arrogance here like extra specially from people should be mahm and that's me really do you know yourself when's the last time you looked in the mirror you think you're a bal nephesh so that's like leads us nicely into the dangers of kumas and uh you know we only have six or seven minutes but I do have a little bit of time to explain these maybe rather than reading them all in inside we look at them um sort of more more outside um the garra here's here's a major danger first of all there always has to be a balance the 21 is a source in shasharim again it continues from we said before which is whenever there is a question of an extra a person always has to weigh has to weigh it. Meaning when it comes to the bottom line, if it's if it's prohibited, it's prohibited. But if it's if you want to do extra, then you better think it through. And if the net loss will outweigh the net gain, says the says the the uh shashim, then you shouldn't do it because you're trying to do more and you ended up doing less in another area either because it affects someone else negatively, it affects you negatively in the long term, you'll never keep it up, etc. And then therefore there are many places brought down where is positively dangerous. I brought you here 22 and 23. The the very opening mitzvah in uh in Brahas where Bhl say you can say the schma any way you like any any any direction you can be standing up you can be sitting down you can be lying down whereas B sh says no in the morning you have to stand up and in the evening you have to lie down you have to lie down. remember that Mishna Rabi Tarafan comes along and says, "Well, I was on the road and I had to say and so I got off my horse and I lie down by the side of the road because why not, you know, let's do an extra humm let's be mahm like b shama uh but I nearly got attacked because you know I was lying down at the side of the road and B hill turned around to him and says it's on your own head you are not allowed to be m like shama because there are sometimes when being m actually undermines the process the is not like B shama therefore if you want to say well who cares behel don't care if you lie down it's not like you're going against behel it's just an extra why not do that as well no you are undermining the halaki process you're setting precedent for future mistakes sometimes you're not allowed to be uh to be m top of page seven the pis chuva brings down a very interesting u debate he says that what if you want to be mmed because you don't like this idea of bleb Yeah. You you ask a shila, I dropped a little bit of meat in my milk. Is it kosher? The ra says, yeah, it's kosher. And you say, why is it kosher? I dropped meat in the milk. Says it's bottle bashin. That's less than a 60. And you say, well, that sounds ridiculous. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to drink something which is there's even a tiny I don't believe in bottle bash. That's a problem because you've just basically made a statement that undermines the halak process. meaning your search for stringency has actually put you in conflict with a key hakic pro system and you've become a heretical uh you know it's a heretical rejection of the hakic system itself therefore the sometimes you're not allowed to do that it's not okay it's not neutral it actually does something which is which is a problem number 26 someone who is exempt from something but they say I'm going to do it anyway it's called a fool. Why are you sitting in the rain in the suka? There's no mitzvah. It's there's no mitzvah in the rain. You're potter. Oh, I like sitting in the rain. Who likes sitting in the rain? Says you're a fool. You're a hut. On the other hand, the prima says, "No, some some situation sitting in the rain." Jean Kelly. Okay, new new take. Okay. Um that sounds more for him. Um the prima guardian says no if it's a legitimate define legitimate an opinion may maybe maybe it is legitimate you're not called ahead yet only in a situation where there's just no hakic base so then you go and work out is there any hakic advantage of sitting in the rain look at the suga is it valid or or you know is it really mass yet are you just being foolish H2 where it will result in a cooler being your mahm and cash but you're lenient with your kibava You're driving your parents crazy. I tell this to my students. I don't need this ha. I don't need that ha. I don't need this ha. Good. You're stringent when it comes to castras. And you're very lenient when it comes to honoring and respecting your parents. That's not okay. You're mirrors but your m and simon. My whole yon is consumed in an OCD. You know, I I I don't know what I'm doing and that's a very problem. Your mahm and gabros and your make embarrassing other people. There's a miser with the uh with the um the rebi before the sixth rebi of labich where they were having a big suda and somebody there didn't realize gross they dip the matzah in the borch and all the are going nuts and and the rebels at the end of the table what what's happening you know what's going on and they said this habits at the table they dip the mass in the bch so the rebba said better the mata should be read than the face of this poor fellow should be read because he didn't realize that there was a problem with kabat Okay, can be mah and make at the same time. Your mah and pes are cleaning when it's not really cleaning and then your makeel in etc. And I brought you many examples as well. Sometimes and I wish we had a little bit more time. I should have really done some of this uh you know maybe it's two sheer rather than one but I brought you some other areas as well. Sometimes to be mmed just shows that you're ignorant and the kuzari brings this down. uh someone asked he when he says that someone would ask the king as it were in the kuzariza analysis why are the kites so much fummer than you they're more particular they're more mahmir he says because the carites don't know what they're doing he asks we don't need to be mahm because we're comfortable and sometimes from and and extraas comes out of just a sense I just don't know what I'm doing if you don't know what you're doing it's easy to say no to everything but that's not called ara that's called ignorance that's called amoratis Anyone can say no. That's why the garra says saying yes is is definitely stronger than saying no. How do I know if you're is just based in ignorance? And then there are all the the sources in 31 and 32 that talks about being mak in something when you're going to look like an arrogant person. The magnav brings down if your mahmi if you're strict and your rebi is lenient then we put you in because who are you to be stricter than your rebi even if you're sham it's not okay it's not an appropriate expression of fr from Mosha the famous chub on blended whisies says I think it's better to drink whiskey which is uh which is not blended he said not he's not talking about blended the mon says mixed with cherry they used to mix sherry a trace cherry in and someone produced whiskey with a hasha. He said, "Kakavod, I think it's great and I definitely won't normally drink the whiskey which is blended with the cherry because it's relying on coolers even though I hold that it's kosher." He said, "And I definitely will drink it when I'm served it and I need to make aim because I don't want to look too f together with this family who are making on this whiskey." You don't want to look f you're of what do you got to worry about? They know that you're the god. He says, "No, it would be yura." Um and uh and therefore there are many reasons why uh the uh the adoption of hummus could be negative as I say either it's from insecurity uh or it's from uh you know being lenient in another area. And just finally just one word before we stop. Rav Cook has a beautiful tuba. The chuba you should read it in depth. I didn't bring up the sheet. The the chuba that deals with kidneyot oils where he wants to say that oils from kidneyot are not prohibited. And he says a few things there. And he says cababalistically speaking there's actually a problem being mahm where the halak doesn't require it. He brings a whole cababalistic idea and he also brings an idea that when when the Kazan made gazeras they were not allowed to make fences around fences. That's one of the limitations on making rebbitic fences and says therefore there is actually potentially a Torah prohibition making too many fences and you may cross that line. Therefore there's there's no safe certain it's not safer to be more mim because you may actually be causing a problem. Okay. And therefore we've looked at that quite quickly but you can take the sheet away and look at it in more depth on your own. I wish you all lots of sim as well as lots of cash and we should all meet God after pace.