Shabbat: The Kiddush Laws - Part 1 - Rabbi Reuven Lauffer

We're going to learn the laws of Kiddush. All right, we learned the laws of lighting candles. So, now we got to learn how to, you know, Kiddush. What How to make Kiddush, what to make Kiddush on, when to make Kiddush, all that kind of stuff, right? So, first of all, you need to know, which is this kind of important, you know, mitzvahs are split up into different categories. And some are biblical mitzvahs, and some of them are positive mitzvahs, some of them are negative mitzvahs, and then some of them are rabbinical mitzvahs. So, you need to know, first of all, that Kiddush on Friday night is a Torah obligation. All right, that makes it gives it a significance even even more than uh the significance that the rabbinical mitzvahs have. Um what is what is Again, what is Kiddush? Well, Kiddush is not the the the biblical obligation for Kiddush is not the kind of Kiddush that we make particularly. It's just reciting certain verses. It doesn't have to be made over a uh a cup of wine. You just have to say certain verses and then we're done. Um However, the sages came along and they told us that we should make Kiddush over wine. So, not only should we recite the verses that need to be recited, but we should recite them over a cup of wine. And uh the same is true also for Havdalah. All right, and that's where the cup of wine for Havdalah comes from. And maybe at some point we'll learn the laws of Havdalah as well. Just that we should understand what needs to be done over there. Um There is a mitzvah, believe it or not, to choose aged and good wine. Now, it's interesting Nobody does that, though. I tell you, it's an interesting thing. First of all, good wine is very subjective. For example, myself, I don't like alcohol very much. Um and uh I'm not I'm not very keen on wine, certainly not dry wine. Uh which is a rather bizarre description of something which is wet, but whatever. Um I'm I'm not a I'm not a fan of dry wine at all. Um so, if I drink wine, it's normally first of all, it's normally like, you know, bubbly bubbly sweet stuff or or dessert wine. I can manage that just about. Bartenura, yeah, it's okay. I can do that. But uh you know, anything anything more serious than that, it's not I just I don't enjoy it. So, we normally make wine at we No, I'll try that again. We normally make Kiddush at home on grape juice. Um that all started, of course, when the kids were small. So, kids don't want to drink wine anyway, even even if it's just Bartenura, they don't want to drink it. Um so, we used to use Kiddush wine. My father-in-law used Kiddush wine. Uh at home, of course, we used Paul Masson, but uh whatever. So, you know, the the idea is like this. It it needs to be a hundred per It it needs to be made out of pure grape juice. All right, whatever you're drinking, whether it's fermented or whether it's not fermented, that's really what's going to define over here what is going to be acceptable for Kiddush. So, you can use a hundred percent grape juice is okay. Really, there's no problem whatsoever. In fact, Rabbi Zalman Auerbach, one of the greatest halachic authorities in Jerusalem today, rules that you can use grape juice for absolutely everything, anything that requires some kind of some kind of wine involved in it, you can use grape juice for everything, except for getting drunk on Purim. So, you couldn't use like a soft drink? Like a grape juice drink? No, right. Oh, now again, if it's made out If it if it's a hundred percent grape juice that's been carbonated, so for example, Kedem have a whole series of these things. That's fine. That's no problem whatsoever. But, if it's a grape flavored drink, that's a problem. Okay. Right, so using um uh you know, over here they have companies like Spring, where you can you you don't even make you don't make a bracha over these things. You make a sh'hakol because it's just made uh you know, from concentrate. It's got lots of water in it. It's got sugar in added into it and everything. Um that that you can't use. What if it's the only thing available? If it's the only thing available, then you still can't use it. And then it's a shame. We'll talk about it what you should do. But, in fact, you should make Kiddush over the challot All right, okay. instead of making Kiddush over some kind some kind of beverage which is not The challot? The challot. The bread. Oh, yeah, okay, I get you. Yeah? Yeah. Okay, well, we'll get to that in Hashem. Yeah? Uh so, like I said, grape grape juice is a hundred percent okay. Really, you know, you can use it for everything and anything and so long as it's a hundred percent grape juice. You'll take a look, you'll see today it's so easy to find this stuff. You know, it's all all over in every every market, every supermarket you'll find a hundred percent grape juice. They've all got great uh kashrus supervision. Um and they're they're all all of those are acceptable. Or if you want, you can use wine. Now again, any any wine is acceptable according to your palate. So, I have I have cousins who are they look at themselves as being great connoisseurs. And they they make wine over dry red wine. Uh sorry, they make Kiddush over dry red wine. It's It's up to you know, it's really It's up to you. What whatever is good for you, yeah. So, I know with like certain wines that are kosher, um I forget what the exact thing is, but if like a non-kosher person looks at it or it becomes non-kosher. With the show? Even even if he thinks even if he thinks about it. Even if he's not in the same room, he just thinks about it. That's it. Would Would that also work for grape juice? And then could you use non-kosher grape Okay, good question. Let's have a look and see. Let's talk about Let's talk about kosher wine in general before we go any further. Uh what what it. Sorry? It's not an excuse. Ignorance is only excuse if you can't learn. But, if you can learn and you say no, then say ignorance is bliss, all right. You didn't Wait a minute. I'm just realizing what you said. You didn't just say what you just said, did you? Yeah, because my father's not Jewish. And like if my dad gives me like a bottle of wine, then I can't drink it. It's like ridiculous. Well, yeah, cuz it's Okay, let's have a look. Let's have a look and see. First of all, first of all, let's have a look and see, okay? But, before we get involved in in non-Jewish people and wine, let's just talk about what makes wine kosher. Right? Because the the truth of the matter is it's a good question because, you know, all of these wines that are being produced all over the world are made out of nothing more than a hundred percent grapes. Right? So, why would this be kosher and this one is not kosher? So, the halacha is that kosher wine needs to be from the beginning of the process that turns it into wine, it needs to be under Jewish hands, which means or feet, I guess, actually. Um which means that if they if a non-Jewish person is involved in the manufacturing process, it's a problem. However, once the wine finds its way into a bottle and it's been it's been corked or it's been capped and it's not open yet, there's no problem whatsoever with a non-Jew having anything to do with that bottle. So, for example, if your father were to say, "You know what? Here, I'm going to I'm going to make you a surprise. I'm going to buy you a bottle of kosher wine." And he brings you a closed bottle of kosher wine, that's fine. It's great. You can say, "Thank you so much. And it's very it's very kind of you and wow." Um if if he gives you a bottle of non-kosher wine, so the thing to do over there is one of two things. Obviously, we don't you don't want to upset him, right? So, you know, one one possible uh option is to take the bottle of non-kosher wine, turn it upside down and whack him over the head with it, and then start screaming and shouting at him and saying to him, "How dare you do that? You know full well that I can't drink this." That's that's not normally the option that I would suggest, although obviously it does depend. It does depend on your relationship with your father, I guess. Um but, the other alter There are a couple of alter One alternative is just to take the bottle of wine and say, "Thank you very much." and to put it to one side and not open it while he's around. And then you can pass it on to somebody who's not Jewish, you know, as a gift. Um the other alternative What happens if the grapes are harvested mechanically? So, again, if the grapes are being harvested mechanically, the it's not just the harvesting of the grapes which is involved. It's everything that's involved over here. So, harvesting the grape grapes mechanically is that's pretty good, although you do need to have a Jewish driver who's in the in the machine that's making sure it's taking place. Unless, it could be I don't know. It could be today they've got uh programs that, you know, these things are done robotically. I don't really know. But, once the the grapes are brought in, that somebody has to be involved in the process of turning it into wine. Even if it's just taking the grapes out of the containers and putting them into the place where they're going to be crushed. But, all of that needs to be done by Jews. You should know, it's very interesting over here in Israel. Israel has become a center of very high quality kosher wine. Um again, when I first got here to Israel about over thirty years ago, there was very very little quality kosher wine around. But, over the years, you know, they've really they've they've done incredibly well. And uh you have Like what are they called? Vintners? What are they called? The people the people in charge of the you know, the experts in the wine production. Vintners, is that what they're called? Vintners. Um so, I don't know if it's still like that, but there were there were wineries over here that had non-Jewish vint Vintners. Vintners. They had non-Jewish vintners that were here. And they were very restricted with what they could do, which was they could taste the wine. Someone could pour out the wine for them to taste it to make sure that it's got the right body and the right flavor and the right color and everything that goes together with it. Um, but they couldn't actually be actively involved in the manufacturing process of the wine. Um, so I mean that's what that's what what I would suggest if a non-Jew gives you a bottle of non-kosher wine is that I would say thank you very much and I would just put it to one side and uh, you know, and and uh, and then pass it on to somebody who you know that it's not a problem to pass it on to unless it's somebody that you know is happy to, you know, that they're happy to learn, right? So if they if you tell them that next time if they could please bring a bottle of kosher wine then they'll be happy to do so, that's good. That's fine. Um, there is wine, you mentioned the word mevushal, right? There is wine which is what's called mevushal which means cooked. It really is it's it's it's boiled for a moment, really we're talking about seconds. They've got new they've got new systems now within inside of the wineries that are able to I think it's called flash pan and it does it like that as the as the wine goes through certain pipes it reaches very very high temperatures and out it goes and that's called mevushal which means cooked wine. Cooked wine is not a problem. Which means that if a if you've got for example if you've got a non-Jew coming to your Shabbat table and you serve up wine it's okay to serve him non it's it's okay to serve him mevushal wine and he can touch the bottle and he can pour out his own wine and he can pour it out for you as well. Um, if it's not mevushal then it's a little bit of a problem. Right? Um, there are purists. Now again, I'm I'm I'm not I don't know enough about wine to be able to tell you if this is truly so anymore but there are purists who won't touch mevushal wine because they say that once it goes through that pasteur- pasteurization process it loses its quality. Now it's very possible I doubt if anybody here knows anything about wine. It is it is very possible that up to about 10 years ago that that was 100% correct. Um, because in the olden days how did how did they get it to that temperature? They boiled it up. It wasn't going through pipes and it wasn't reaching the temperature in a moment and then passing through but it was all getting boiled up and it could it's very possible that wine lost its uh, you know, lost its quality by going through that kind of a that I mean that's really the reason why it's okay to drink it because it's not really the kind of stuff that connoisseurs would be drinking. Today with the advent of modern technology I think I would imagine that it's probably very difficult to taste the difference between something which is mevushal and something which is not mevushal anymore. That's my personal opinion but again like I said I don't know enough about wine to be able to say that definitively. What would the problems be with non-mevushal wine and also what does the boiling for a few seconds what difference does that make? Why why is that? Yeah, okay. So question number one what's the difference what what are the problems? The problems are that if a non-Jew touches an open bottle of non-mevushal wine it becomes forbidden for a Jew to drink it. If they touch the bottle? Even if they picked up the bottle and just moved it across it was it was bothering them to get to the, you know, to get to the potatoes or whatever it was, um, it becomes a problem. If the bottle is not open it's not a problem. If the bottle is open it is a problem. What about in a dark decanter? What about? In a dark decanter? If they can't see the wine is it still Oh, yeah, nothing nothing nothing changes if if it's not if they if the wine is not identifiable even even you were to take wine and put it into different bottles or put you've got them in unmarked bottles. I don't know let's say for you you manufacturing your own wine and uh, you just put them into old bottles that you've soaked the labels off of. Um, even then even if they don't know there's wine inside of them but if they're open and they get moved then it's a problem. So you cannot make kiddush over that wine then? You cannot make kiddush over that is it why and what is the boiling thing? What what what's the Okay, I'm what what I'm going to tell you is like this. It may sound a little antiquated to it may sound a little odd but the rabbis came along and they wanted to stop they wanted to stop socializing between Jews and non-Jews that might lead to assimilation. So one of the things that they put into place was that they shouldn't they shouldn't you shouldn't drink wine together with non-Jews because of the concern of assimilation. Now you have to put things into historical perspective and then we'll work out what our law is. But in the olden days Jew you know, the Jews had very little social interaction with non-Jews. First of all Jews were looked at as being second class citizens at best um, and secondly they you know, that it was just it was something which was not done. The Jews led very insular lives in their own that villages in their own towns even inside of ghettos inside of the city. Um, once they started having social interaction with the non-Jews they were exposed to the freedom of the non-Jewish life and that led to assimilation. The rabbis came along and they said that they don't want that to be happening so they said that social drinking should not be done. Now what's interesting over here is that social drinking revolves only around wine. It does not uh, revolve around going out for a pint of beer. It does not involve, you know, going out for a shot of whiskey. It revolves only around the concept of wine which means that there's no problem with drinking whiskey. There's no problem with drinking beer. There is a problem with drinking wine and uh, co- even again even if the wine is kosher but the person who the if the non-Jewish person is touching the open bottle then it's a problem. Right? One of one of the things that I've seen done um, by again like children that have non-Jewish parents where it's a little bit complicated to start explaining to them and if they can't get a hold of the the simplest is to get a hold of mevushal wine and then you don't have to worry about anything. It's fine. It's great. Um, but it wasn't possible so what they did was they took they made sure to take their wine first and then they just pop put the bottle down on the table and yeah, anyone wanted to take they'd take or they would be very good children and go to their non-Jewish parents and say here you know, Daddy can I pour you a glass of wine and uh, you know, there there are ways of of trying with. I I would say today the simplest way of dealing with it is to uh, is to just um, to buy yourself mevushal wine and be done with it. How does the mevushal change Why why does mevushal again? Because make it boiling up the wine changes the taste. The uh, like I mentioned up until not very long ago connoisseurs would not deign to touch wine that had been pasteurized. Uh, that means that if you're drinking pasteurized wine if you're drinking wine that's been through this cooking process then you're not going to have a problem with social drinking because the people who drink socially are not going to touch that stuff. It really it really No, it really it really did taste different. It really did. Okay. Um, again today with the this flash system so it could be that with the flash system we're we're actually doing ourselves a disservice because it's not changing the wine in any way whatsoever that the quality of the wine's not changing. I think what he's asking is why can a non-kosher person touch it and it still stay kosher? Because again because mevushal wine wine that's been cooked is not the kind of wine that's going to cause social interaction. That's not true. I thought it was presumed that once it's cooked it's they no longer find it fit to use for their pagan practices. Yeah, but part part of part of this also with with social drinking. Right? So part part of this is that again I'm I'm you know, It seems like an outdated law. It's possible. Um, and part part of the problem about it though now, right? Part of the part of the problem is that one once once laws have been instituted they normally require a base in which is greater in number and wisdom than the original base in that put this into place. Now this base in that put in the idea of we're going back back into the you know, back into the Talmudic times and the chances of getting something like that so it it is conceivable that that with you know, with the concept of flash boiling or whatever it's called flash heating I can't remember it's got it's got a it's got an official name. It could be that we're actually we're actually undoing what the sages put into place to begin with. Um, can it can it be you know, can somebody come along and say you shouldn't do that? They can try. In the meantime I'm not aware I'm not aware yet of people doing that. But it doesn't make sense that it doesn't apply to any other drink. Does it suggest that you would only socially drink wine? Oh, so here Sam No, because Sam there's an added dimension over here of avodah zarah of worship of idol worship. Wine wine was used for libations. Um, what's his name? Rabbi Sinclair has got a great story that he tells over you know, if anybody thinks this stuff is antiquated. Uh, he has a story that he told over that he from Los Angeles. Of course it it has to be from California. Um, about uh, two Jews that went to a restaurant and uh, what it wasn't a kosher restaurant but you know, they wanted to have a glass of wine together and uh, they they uh, the waiter went off and he came back I can't remember all the details but he came it took a while until he came back again with their glasses of wine and they asked him what had taken so long and he said, you know, new age. He said, well I just I I had to offer a glass of this wine up to my deity which is why it took me a little while to get back here. And this was going back in the you know, going back in the 80s or something the 90s. It's like it's it's it sounds ridiculous but these things still do exist. The idea of using wine for idol worshipping rights, pagan rights. It's there. Right? So, wine has got like a a a double a double whammy to it. The first one is a social dimension, the second one is a idol worshipping dimension, and that's why it's given the extra security, right? Then the then other things are not given. So, boiled wine is magic wine. Boiled wine is Well, depends who you ask, but you ask a connoisseur, they'll tell you it's not magic at all. They'll tell you it's bloody awful. Stays kosher. Yeah. The thing that still confuses me is, if you're already in a social like I understand that the law was put in place to prevent social interaction, but let's say you already in a situation and touch the bottle. Okay, you can't drink the wine, but you but And on top of that, you're father. You know, like Oh, I understand. Listen. Listen. I the night before I came to Israel I I have a non-Jewish father, too, and I stayed at my father's house. And he surprised me he passed me a glass of champagne to celebrate me leaving You're leaving. He was celebrating your leaving. And I chose to drink it. Yes. He's going. He opened a special bottle and he poured me a glass and I I didn't want to bring myself to upset him by not drinking. I Listen, I I understand all of the of the emotional pitfalls that there are there. I really do. And I I empathize 100% and what what should one do in a situation? So, in in the future, you know, maybe first of all, maybe one one way of getting around the problem is bring bring your own bottle with you and say, "Look, here Dad, I'm I I knew that you would want to celebrate my leaving. So, um here, look, I've I've brought some I brought I brought some You can get You can get You can get pretty good uh kosher champagne, actually. scratch? Um The the uh the other alternative is just uh you know, I mean, I I personally I mean, I don't know about you people, but I personally think that I I'm I'm always telling people that I don't want to drink wine. Not not not not because I It's not that I don't trust, you know, my mother-in-law. I'm sure she's Jewish. I'm sure she you know, she looks very Jewish and sounds very Jewish and you know, why anyone who's not Jewish would walk around with a wig on and and all those kinds of things is beyond me, but um I just like you know, I don't It's It's not It's not wine time. What can I tell you? I I really I really have to be in the mood to want to drink any of it to begin with, actually. So, can you can you kosher grape juice go non-kosher by Kosher grape juice is all pasteurized. It's all It's all been through this process. So, kosher grape kosher grape juice is really really really not complicated. You can have it on the table, anyone can use it, anyone can drink from it, um and you don't have to be concerned about anything at all. But 100% non-100% grape juice from a regular supermarket 100% grape juice or even fruit juice that has got 100% grape juice added into it is a problem. It can't be drunk. Okay. Even though it's not being produced as wine. There's no There really you know, that the the the the the various dimensions we spoken about is a problem of wine. Right? But 100% I I remember Marks & Spencer's, for example, have a They've They've got a few uh fruit juices that they sell that are like a combination of different juices. And you've got Take a look because some of these things have got 100% grape juice in it and it's a problem. So, why is that a problem? Because again, there there's a concept in the Halakha called lo plug, which means that we don't make exceptions. Well, once something has become problematic, then to start drawing lines somewhere like where where At what point are you going to draw the line? So, if 100% grape juice is okay until when? Can you use it for kiddush? Well, that's a very clear line. Which? If for kiddush you have to use 100% kosher grape juice. But if you just have like that you know, there's a product Innocent Smoothie. I don't know if you have this. Innocent Smoothie. The UK smoothie-based product. And the the best dinner in London has ruled that it can't be kosher because even like a banana and strawberry smoothie has been produced in a machine that has been it's been used with grape. Yeah. And therefore, they won't they won't approve any of the drinks. It's a problem. It's mommish a problem. That's why it's interesting. When you've got kosher authorities that are supervising enormous factories and they've got a run. They they don't have this It's not It's not working the whole time, which means I'll take it over for 2 weeks and they'll produce X amount of gallons of this drink and then it will go out onto the market and then 6 months later they'll do it again. Before they run the kosher part of what they're doing, the whole thing has to be cleaned out. And some of this stuff is really really complicated. Which it's not just a case of running hot water through the whole system, boiling hot water through the whole system. Sometimes, you know, a lot of these things have got due due to the way that they're made, the pipes have got all kinds of interesting shapes to them. Um and uh running hot water is not going to clean it through properly and you've got to use steam and you've got all kind all kinds of things. It's It's complicated. It really is. Um the problem that again, what's the problem? The problem is you've got 100% grape juice running through this stuff prior to the run that you want to make then it's a problem and you can't use it even if in the ingredients of whatever's coming out now, there is no grape juice. So, like you said, maybe it's a banana and strawberry smoothie mixture, right? But because it's being sent through the same uh machines that have produced something that's got grape inside of it, it's a problem. Um It's like that for a lot of things, really. If you if you take a look at the OU, like the OU I think is the largest kosher authority in the world. Um and they they they give kashrus If I remember correct, I think they're giving kashrus supervision to over 25,000 products. I mean, it's like it's enormous. And uh you'll see sometimes on an OU on a on a packet of something, you'll see it will say it will say DE. OUDE. DE stands for dairy equipment. Which means whatever's been produced has been produced in something that was no dairy involved in what's being produced right now. But the factory produces dairy things and therefore, for whatever the reason, it was too Maybe it's too complicated or too expensive to kosher the whole thing before the run is done. So, they'll just put on the front DE. You should know that if somebody who's careful about not eating anything that doesn't have supervised milk inside of it, then you shouldn't be eating these things. Otherwise, it's okay to eat. So, it's if you're fleishig, you can't eat it, right? Dairy equipment, again, it's a lot less complicated. You can't eat it together with fleishigs, with meat, but you can eat it You can eat it immediately afterwards. Really? You don't have to wait 6 hours. That makes it a lot less complicated, but it doesn't take the flavor of the dairy. Cuz it doesn't take the flavor of the Yeah, whatever. It's just you're just using You're using, you know, you're using equipment. I mean, they've got various ways that they deal with the with the issues, but you know, the simplest way to deal with it is to clean it up and wait 24 hours before use it, but you can't always afford to do that. Where where did you Where did you find that? Because I have some sunflower seeds that are KDE. And this I had one of guy come over to hang out and when I was giving out sunflower seeds he was like, "I'm fleishig." And he called his rabbi in America and his rabbi said, "Well, they're you know, if they have dairy near them, then you can't eat them." But you just said if it's DE, then you can't eat it. It's on the It's on the It's It's dairy equipment means that the thing is normally under what's called the kashrus kashrus Halavi. It's considered to be milchig with regards to eating it together with fleishigs, but it's not fleishig. There's nothing There's no There's no meat in it. Is that what it means? There's no There's no milk in it. I'm sorry. It's It's uh There's also no meat in it. And also no meat in it. And if it was manufactured over here, there'd be no sunflower seeds in there, either, but just the shells. Where where were you able to find that? In the laws of in the laws of Shulchan Aruch, they appear in in the section called Yoreh De'ah. I I am sure that there are books in English that would be able to uh you know, to explain this clearly to you and explain to you when it is okay and when it's not okay. Um but in general, dairy equipment means that you shouldn't be You cannot eat it together with meat. You can't eat it immediately But you can eat it immediately afterwards. That's a the normal normal normal designation. Right? Um so that means, right? Like I said before, there's no problem with drinking beer. There's no problem with drinking whiskey. We'll talk about whiskey in a moment cuz there are there are problems There are problems with whiskey, but Yeah. Um but in general, okay, let's have a let's have a look at whiskey. Um there is, you know, very very good quality whiskey. So, they've got this thing that they begin to mature it in oak casks. And then after a while, after a few years, they transfer it from the oak casks into what were used for sherry. Or sometimes Madeira. Again, ri- rich heavy wines that have been soaked into the barrel. The flavor's been soaked into the barrel. The barrels, of course, are completely empty and they've been washed out. But the the uh flavor has been soaked into the wood of the barrels. And then they transfer the whiskey after it's been in the regular regular barrels for a certain amount of years, they transfer it across. And the function of that is to give the whiskey a taste. It picks up like a like a trace of whatever it's gone into. And it's considered to be a very luxury thing. So, you if you go to say look at take a look at expensive bottles of whiskey, you'll find invariably you'll find that, you know, it will tell you that it was matured for X amount of years in oak barrels and then it was transferred. And sometimes you've got double barrels and triple barrels, right? And sometimes it will go from oak into sherry into Madeira or what whatever. I mean, you know, you name it. You can do whatever you want, right? That's very good. Uh well, according according according to the again, the whiskey connoisseurs, not only does it sound good, but apparently it is very good. Yeah. Um is there a problem or isn't there a problem? So, Rav Moshe Feinstein, one of the great halachic authorities from the previous generation, he died about 30 years ago. He writes that it's okay to drink that whiskey because there's nothing there. It's just a flavor that's being imparted from the wood into the whiskey, but there's no there's nothing in there that was that there's no non-kosher sherry. He says it's okay. Rav Dayan Weiss says that it's okay as well. However, before you get too excited over here, the the uh the contemporary posekim from our generation uh of the opinion I must admit I tell you like this. I I I you know, you have to understand how great Rav Moshe Feinstein was. Rav Moshe Feinstein was the accepted halachic authority for the entire generation throughout the gamut of Orthodox Jewry. His word was considered to be the final word when it came to halacha. However, with this particular ruling of his, I find I find it very difficult. I'm not I'm not sure I understand the logic because the whole point of putting the whiskey into barrels that have had something else inside of them, sherry for example, is to impart the taste to the whiskey. And if that's the case, and I'm not 100% sure how it why why is it okay to say that it's okay? Right? I mean You got a bottle of scotch that you want to drink. But if it's in there I don't know. It's already it's good. Oh, good. If if you if you I don't I don't know. I I don't know. You know what? I did see, interestingly enough, hold on. I did see that made over here by Carmel Winery that they they had Yeah, they had a very a very good quality whiskey which they produced and they they produced it in their their sherry barrels. So, that's okay. That's not a problem. That's completely kosher. But, if you go to your regular whiskey shop, the chances are that you're going to find over there that the good quality whiskeys and the ones which are going to, you know, tickle your fancy are going to be the ones that probably not okay to drink. Right? Because they've been matured in sherry casks or they've been matured in Madeira casks or whatever it is, right? So, Rav Moshe Feinstein said it's okay from 40 years ago. Right? The contemporary authorities today say that it's better not to use them. The OU and the the London-based in have got various whiskeys which they give their supervision on. Um there are whiskeys there are whiskeys, not very many around. If anybody here of truly is a whiskey connoisseur, there are very very good quality whiskeys where the the the selling point for those whiskeys are that they were made only in oak casks. They're like the purists, right? Who don't want the taste of something else given over. They just want the taste of the whiskey. But, those what you know, bottles of whiskey, they're a lot of money. They're like $200 plus. They probably start at $200. Um less less quality whiskey is normally always okay because they're not they're not spending the money. These casks are very expensive, right? So, they're not spending their money by putting whiskey that's only going to you know, it's 12-year-old whiskey is not the kind of whiskey that's going to go into a into a like a sherry cask. Right? It'll just go into an oak barrel and that's it, finished. Um once you start moving up, then it then it starts becoming a problem. So, again, you know, what whatever whatever your fancy is. I I uh I came home that there is in in Heathrow Airport there is something called the World of Whiskey, which is a a small store with very very expensive and very high and quality wine uh whiskeys. And uh they had a whiskey over there that was selling for 3 and 1/2 thousand pounds, which to me sounds like a lot of money. That's like $5,000. That sounds like a lot of money to me for a bottle of whiskey, but hey, what do I know, right? Um so, it's run by rather dour Scotsman. And uh you know, you go in there and sometimes they've got things that are there you can taste them. I I don't drink whiskey. I don't I I don't like I don't like alcohol. I really don't. But, but I went in there and I see this 3 and 1/2 thousand pound bottle of whiskey. I said, "Can I have a taste of that?" So, he says, "No, sir." No, no, no, sir. I said, "Okay." And I said to him, "Tell me, do you do you ever sell any of these?" So, he says, "Oh, yes, sir." He says that he even sold two bottles in one day to the same fellow. The fellow spent over $10,000 on two bottles of whiskey. So, I came home. I told my kids. I said, you know, just to give you an idea of what's going on out there. It's a crazy world, you know. People are spending $5,000 on a bottle of whiskey. That that's wild, right? So, the next summer we happen to went to visit my mother in London and we're on our way back. We're in the airport and the kids are like wandering around by themselves. And one of my my my one of my sons who I think it was maybe just before his bar mitzvah, he was like 12 years old or something. And he starts, you know, pulling my sleeve like, "Hey, come come here. You got to come and see this." I'm like, "What what do you want? Leave me alone." He said, "No, no, come and see." He said he takes me to the whiskey shop. They've got a bottle of whiskey for 12 thousand pounds. That's $20,000 for a bottle of whiskey. So, I uh and my son was like he was like, "Wow." He said of course he's from here. So, he doesn't he doesn't and he was only 12 years old. He didn't understand currencies. So, he says, "Right, 12,000 pounds is a lot of money, right?" So, I said, "Yeah." He says, "How much is that?" He says, "Tell How much is it?" I said to him, "It's like 20 20,000." "No, I said, tell me in shekels." So, in those days, there were eight there were eight shekels to the pound. So, I said, "This is like 100,000 shekels for a bottle of whiskey." So, he stops and like I can see I guess like he's calculating this in his mind, right? And then he says and then he says to me, "You know," he says, "If I had 100,000 shekels," he said, "I wouldn't buy a bottle of whiskey. I'd buy a sports car." So, I said to I said, "No, you don't understand." I said, "If anyone's buying this 100,000 shekel bottle of whiskey, they have a sports car already." It's it's good. It's fine, right? I think uh the world auction one of the world record right now is 46,000 pounds for a single bottle of whiskey. That's not bad. Was this a regular size bottle or was it that No, no. I don't know if it was 750 or whether it was a liter, I don't know. But, it was just a a regular bottle of uh of whiskey. What what can I tell you? I mean one man's poison is another man's whatever, poison. Yeah. And what you'll see normally again, Rav Moshe Weiss says that normally it's a selling point, right? Which means that if you if you've matured the whiskey in a expensive bottle and it's a expensive barrel, you want people to know that, which is going to justify the price. So, normally it's written on the it will be written on the box that it comes in. It's showing the very expensive barrel. That's right. Something like that, for sure. Um so, it's the something something to keep an eye on, you know. I again, I don't I don't drink whiskey, but when I when I do buy whiskey, which is not very often, I do make sure to buy whiskey which hasn't hasn't been in anything except for oak barrels because, you know, people come and they drink it. They want to know that what they're drinking that you know, there are no questions about it. Why do they put whiskey out at a kiddush? Well, I don't know. They do it in London. On Shabbos morning. We in mitzva shem it's true we're supposed to learn halacha at the kiddush, right? But, we we got a little sidetracked by by wine and whiskey and all kinds of wonderful things like that. But, in mitzva shem kiddush with whiskey You can make whiskey you can make whiskey with kiddush. I mean, you can. Whatever. You you can make kiddush with whiskey on Shabbos morning. We'll talk about it. It's a little it's a little bit complicated about the amounts that you're supposed to be drinking. Um and what's okay, what's not okay. Well, in mitzva shem when we get there, we'll talk about it. On Friday night, you need to be making kiddush over wine. Um and again, the wine needs to be good either you know, good good quality wine according according to your palate. Here, let's just learn one more halacha over here for today. Uh the min hagiza as I'm sure you probably realize when you go around to somebody's house for kiddush that normally the head of the household makes kiddush and everybody answers amen to the bracha and he fulfills your obligation for us by making kiddush. And that's okay. Like with like with the these kinds of blessings, it's okay for somebody else to fulfill your obligation. What you have to be careful about is that when he makes a bracha over the over the wine, baruch atah Hashem Elokeinu Melech ha'olam borei pri hagafen, when he says baruch atah Hashem, don't say baruch hu u'varuch shmo. Why? Right? Because if you do that that here, for example, when you listen to the recitation of the when the amidah is being repeated by the chazan, so he recites all these brachas one after the other, right? And when he says the words baruch atah Hashem, everybody says baruch u'varuch shmo, which means blessed is he and blessed is his name. Why are you doing that? Because whenever God's name is pronounced, you should really you should you should aggrandize God's name. For sure. Baruch hu u'varuch shmo, which means blessed is he, baruch hu u'varuch shmo, and blessed is his name. However, when you do that, that means that really you're saying that the bracha that's being recited is not is not being recited to fulfill your obligation. You've made a break. In order for the brocha to be made for you, right? If I'm if I'm reciting a brocha that's going to be for you as well, then you should not say borchu uvacha shemo. You should just You should just say amen at the end of the brocha. That's something to keep in mind when somebody's making kiddush over there on Friday night. So, he's making kiddush for you as well. So, you shouldn't recite You shouldn't say borchu uvacha shemo. You should listen to the words carefully, right? Because he's fulfilling your obligation. Do you have to drink from the wine that he make kiddush over? You don't have to. There's no obligation to do so. However, you'll find that the accepted norm is that the wine gets passed around, you know, gets poured out into little cups, and gets given to everybody that's there. And that's great. You should drink drink from the wine that's been given because after all the brocha was made for you, so you can also benefit from drinking some of that wine. But, if for whatever the reason, I don't know, for example, you can't drink wine. They're making kiddush over real wine, and it's forbidden for you to drink wine right now for medical reasons, whatever it is. Huh? Or because you're a Muslim, or because you're an alcoholic, or or because or because or because whatever. I'm sure there might be another reason somewhere. Um then or or allergic to alcohol maybe. Or you made a vow you're not there, right? Or What will we do without you, huh? Um so, we So, then you don't have to drink the wine. The person made kiddush for you. You said amen. You fulfilled your obligation, and then it's okay to go and wash your hands and to wait for amotzei together with everybody else. Who's going to fulfill your obligation? It's got to be somebody over the age of bar mitzvah. Right? So, if you're over there in the house and for whatever the reason they give the 10-year-old kid to make kiddush for everybody, it's a problem. Right? And and it needs to be made by somebody who's over the age of bar mitzvah because only somebody over the age of bar mitzvah can fulfill your obligation with brachot. Is there a difference between being given wine? Sometimes, you know, the custom back home was to just like we all pour the wine out first, and then then everyone drinks their own wine. And sometimes they will make a brocha on a cup and Right. Is there a difference? There's no There's no major difference. If you're pouring out the wine before kiddush and each one's pouring out their own wine, then you should just do your best to remember to hold the wine during kiddush. Pick it up and hold it while kiddush is being recited. And after the brocha has been recited and you say amen, you can then drink from your wine, or you can have the kiddush given to you. Um Are you Here's an intro just a you know, a a little a little tidbit of halacha at the end over here. Are you allowed to pass over Somebody gives you a cup of wine, and you want to pass it on to the next person sitting next to you. Are you allowed to do that? Here. So, the answer is like this. So long as the person making kiddush has drunk from the wine, Right? Listen carefully. So long as the person making kiddush has drunk from the wine, then it's okay for you to pass the wine over and give it over to the next person. They can pass it around the table. And if it gets back to If it comes all the way around back to you again, then that means it's gone too far, right? That's okay. But, if the person who's making kiddush has not drunk from the wine, then you can't pass it over. Once it's been given to you, you have to drink from that wine. For whatever the reason, I don't know. I don't know what's happened over here. I don't know why it's happened. But, that's just something to keep an eye out for. If they have No, you can. If they have drunk from it, then you can pass the wine on to somebody else, right? If they haven't drunk from it, then you cannot. And Rabbi Geffen is is subtly pointing at his watch over here, which probably means that because they put the clocks back last night, we've got another hour to keep going over here. Is that Is that what Is that what you're trying to say? They generally will always drink from it before passing. As As a rule, yeah. That's the That's the norm. Yeah. Okay, mitzvah shem. We'll we'll continue. Thank you, Rabbi.