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04-29-2015 Baltimore Security Update and Halachos of Security
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Rabbi Zvi Goldberg, STAR-K Kashrus Administrator, is joined by Mr. Nachman Schachter, President of Baltimore's NWCP, and Rabbi Mordechai Frankel, STAR-K Insights from the Institute, in discussing the recent Baltimore riots and security issues, as well as the halachic implications of Shabbos and Yom Tov.
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Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
hello and welcome to Star K's monthly
webinar uh which is held the last
Wednesday of every month at 12 noon
today we're very sorry for the delay
uh we have some technical difficulties
I'm not sure if it had anything to do
with the riots or not but uh
something got into our system and uh
Hashem we are here now I'm Rebecca
Goldberg your host
and today we're very pleased to have
with us Mr enough Manchester welcome
thank you very much Mr schefter is the
president of the nwcp of Northwest
citizens Patrol here in Baltimore
um and after we speak with Mr schefter
for a little bit we're going to be
joined by Rabbi Frankel who's our
director of the hello Institute at the
Starke
if you'd like to see The Archives of
this of these classes and we've had
every month for the past couple years
you can go to
kosherclasses.org or you go to our Vimeo
Channel
you can send us an email at info
star-k.org and sign up for information
when we have the classes and um
and what the topic is going to be
um
thanks for bearing with us with the
technical difficulties
um so
Mr Schechter if you could give us some
background of the nwcp just for a minute
what what does your organization do
thank you very much Rabbi Goldberg
the organization has 400 volunteer
active members for the last 33 years
we've been around for a third of a
century
our members Patrol on a seven week cycle
every seven weeks they Patrol eight cars
go out a night and our Patrol is very
unique because our rules are you stay in
the car when you control meaning if you
see anything going on you radio it in
every individual gets a radio and a map
to stay in a specific area and you and
you radio in any anything that you see
that needs to be taken care of we are
unique because we have a police officer
that rides with us to address any issues
that come up our Patrol has addressed
anything from stolen bicycles
kidnappings we've even stopped the bank
robbery and well I don't remember that
okay it was in the early days oh
absolutely and what is very useful did
you get the reward for that
um I don't think there was a reward
what was unique what is unique is that
the police department has stationed the
police officers with our with us who
rise with us every single night and he's
there we ride from 7 30 to 10 30 at
night so he addresses any issues that
come up it's really a uh you know this
organization is really known nationally
as one of the top or the top you know
citizens Patrol in the country you know
and I see when I go to there go they see
all the awards and you know so it's
really very very well uh very well known
so what's the lwcp doing differently now
with the situation here in Baltimore is
there anything is patrolling as usual
from what time is it seven seven thirty
to ten thirteen right so is there
anything different
well
um the first night we did not have a
police officer because all officers were
stationed to go to where the um
where the rides were so they took away
the police officers Officer there were
no police officers no one knew this but
there actually no police officers in our
whole area
and last night it's now we can know
about it now you can know
um but last night we were the only area
that had a police officer that's how
much they trust us and that's how much
they know that we're effective we had
groups that went out last night they did
not have our groups usually go out with
their lights on at night we have um
lights that go on the top of the car
because we're not we're not undercover
um people we want people to know what
we're doing and that we're out there
last night we did not go out with any
lights because if there are any
individuals who decided they wanted to
throw things at our cars we would not
let that happen so the mayor okay so you
didn't want to have the lights because
that attracts attention it tracks
attention yet we were out there
supervising and making sure that
everything was quiet I see okay so
um so we had the curfew or the famous or
inFAMOUS
curfew
um I don't think I've ever been under a
curfew before except maybe what during
the snow maybe or something there was
one sure we had a cookie for this now
for the snow right we could not go out
and drive right right but that wasn't
scary driving curfew not in the street
curfew right that wasn't a scary uh
situation
um so I mean basically they're saying
that since 1968 has not been a curfew
here a security curfew so yeah
um so let's talk about how that affected
the uh the Jewish Community the schools
the schools and so on the mayor called
the curfew Monday evening
Tuesday morning I walked into Shoal
early in the morning and I met the
president of the Agoda Park Heights and
he said he was talking to her Highland
late last night and they were discussing
with all of the Ninja that are going on
in the Agora we have the most Museum in
town they go till 11 o'clock at night
and we have people learning in India
good until 12 o'clock at night
excuse me for one second Rabbi Heber
when he was on here once he pointed out
that they are good has the most
um
in the country okay because there are
many shibla who have more minions as
many factories they call them but they
are they adopt in the Nissan so anyway
okay good okay parenthetic but but
you're right but I guess last night that
wasn't true because we cut out something
else so he said to him well let nothing
Shack decide whether we should have the
late Manana so I discussed it with the
president and it was clear if the city
decided to have a curfew and that it did
not did not want anyone on the street
we should certainly abide by those rules
and not have any money on them after 10
o'clock so it was decided that at 9 30
that would be the last minion no 10
o'clock no 10 30 no 11 o'clock the
agooda would be closed at 10 o'clock
which is what happened and there were
other shows that followed suit it is
important to know that our area has over
4 000 families and 30 yeshules some of
them in the city some of them the county
those that are in the county are much
further removed and really are under
different rules than the city because
there is no no demonstrating going on in
the county no riots going on in the
county all those in the city even though
our community itself is not near the
rise of demonstration but we're closer
so we follow the rules I'm closed with
both the city and the county but the
information that we're getting as far as
the uh as far as the demonstrating we're
following the city rules and um so the
aguda and other schools are closer by so
those are the shoals did close earlier
and they had to re-uh re-examine their
schedule so tonight that's not well it's
still in effect tonight right the whole
week through showers through Sunday
oh okay so the next thing that came up
was the schools in the the public
schools were closed our Jewish schools
were all open they opened on time the
question was because there was some
demonstrating That was supposed to occur
what would be should the schools stay
closed should stay open or should they
leave earlier and the the city police
suggested very strongly that they should
close because those demonstrations were
supposed to organize at about 3 30 when
the schools would be letting out and if
the demonstrations were developed as
thought and kids would be coming out of
school that would not be a good thing
okay so they closed the schools early
here's the phone number that we do have
that's up on your screen
uh 218-895
-1203 again 218
-895-1203 passcode 2020 pound and so you
can hear it um hear it by phone
um if you have an available phone you
can try that
um
okay so if there's anything happening
and yesterday was pretty quiet right yes
anything that happened today or is
anything that we should know about or
well right now everything seems to be a
holding pattern things are quieter and
we're hoping for them to stay quieter
the next issue will be Shabbos because
we do have a curfew and we know there
are Sheldon's office there are Bar
Mitzvahs there are events coming up with
Chavez and what will we do as far as the
curfew so we're very fortunate
since we have a great relationship with
our major our major is in charge of our
district and he has told us that he will
be quite lenient with us he knows that
there really is no trouble in our area
and the only thing he's concerned about
is if if some individuals decide to
contact our area that we should we have
to be careful so he'll be lenient with
us
um we we can stay out later but we need
to be careful so as far as that is
concerned shabba's concerned basically
um we should not have a problem with the
curfew okay that's good to know I didn't
realize that I was wondering what would
happen so everybody can go about like
normal just be careful because of the
situation we will make everyone aware of
it in its time I see someone told me
that maybe you can
authenticate this that in 1968
uh there was there was the riots that
happened in and they told me that a
non-jewish person took upon himself to
stand outside the Yeshiva Mary's World
which was on I guess Garrison Boulevard
at that time which is in the midst of
the city and he protected the Yeshiva
from from trouble
I don't think at this point they needed
uh the Yeshiva Now is really is way far
out you know it's in the county I don't
even think that I mean that's many miles
away so I don't think they would have
that issue right now correct
um
okay Mr Chef is there anything else you
want to leave us with uh any other
updates that we need to know or
it's just um certainly the mishna says
low
that if not for um
police officers and fair people would
eat each other up and unfortunately that
is what we're seeing and people need to
fear the police and police need to make
that we're afraid of them and if that's
not what happens then these are the
results so um I would tell our listeners
from outside Baltimore that we're also
really at least myself following it only
on the news I mean I wouldn't know that
anything was going on other than the
news
I don't see anything differently I don't
I mean just uh it's not bar Hashem has
not actually affected us
um directly so so that is very true
there hasn't been anyone that has been
accosted in our area there has been no
vandalism no property loss and I'll hold
the whole Jewish area so even though it
is a couple of miles from us it is
downtown and it is nerve-wracking
however our area for Hashem at this
point in time is totally safe and we do
have relatives and Friends cooling all
hyper and nervous what is going on we
were happy to report at this point
nothing is going on that should continue
thank you thank you very much for coming
and uh good luck with all your work
thank you very much thank you for
inviting me so now we'll turn to Rabbi
Franco
okay so let's talk about some of these
security issues that come up the Allah
issues that uh that do could come up
under such circumstances
um
there are many things that are
applicable only on Chavez because during
the week a person acts as as usual
generally
um
and and some of these things are only
applicable on shop so let's
and we're not going to preface all these
with God forbid right because we could
just keep keep repeating that so we'll
just say once you know if any of this
happens
um what would a person do if he sees uh
a robber
breaking into his house on chalice
whether it's permitted to be done
well
it's very important that um that the
police know what's going on in our
community and that the police are
informed and that our community works
with the police I have to say that um
people just had the opportunity to hear
from Mr shatter
um when it comes to dealing with the
police there are often people who have
frustrations and they tend to be vocal
about their frustrations and they tend
to be antagonistic with the police and
um that can just lead to distrust and
confrontation
um a much smaller way to do things which
Mr shatter has uh has led a community in
for many years is to work closely with
the police to to get involved with the
police and he really is the last song
and he's done tremendous amount of my
community in um in in fostering this
close relationship to Japanese he has of
the police and much of it is done behind
the scenes much of that is done quietly
because that's the nature of the work
and people do not necessarily know how
much effort how much time goes into it
there's been many many years and I think
our community has a tremendous amount of
gratitude to semester for that and it
wasn't does see a robber breaking into
his house so um again on Shabbos
unfortunately the nwcp which drives
around is limited some showers it's a
modern technology has not yet come up
with a Shabbos car app over here and we
won't get into that discussion but um
um and so we're not able to drive on
Shabbos and and there are there are
unfortunate people around the person
sees the rubber in his house so as we
know
um one of the fundamental rules in in
Yuba street is the high beam that a
person is meant to live and with the
exception of of course the three uh the
three things which are yaharic valiava
that a person should get off his life
for not to kill somebody not to wash
over to Zara not to be involved in a
race other than that a person is meant
to protect his life above all other
things and includes within that is
Shabbos the person that is protecting
his life is uh supersedes concerns of
Shabbos if a person is Rob in his house
he shouldn't assume you should assume
that it's a risk to his life the terror
tells us that the concept of Bob and
Mark Terrace that if somebody breaks
into your house then the turbo does give
a processant
rights to uh necessary to kill the
person
um again I'm not suggesting that a
person should just like do that in their
own house but uh certainly to protect
themselves in whatever way they can do
and calling the police
um is that's at least he can just at
least that's right now what if he's
breaking into that night let's say you
see him not breaking into your house but
into your store like in other words
there's nobody there it's obvious
there's nobody there there isn't any
danger to life uh can you still call the
the police under that circumstance right
so um so when it comes to Shabbos
um when you come a person to when his
life is at stakehold even as there's a
small possibility his life to the stake
it doesn't have to be a large
possibility even if there's a small
remote possibility a person is allowed
to
um do whatever he can to take some stuff
out of that danger if the if a cc
survival breaking into a store and
there's no one in the store and there's
no concern about dangerous life the only
concern is monetary loss that the person
might walk away with some of his
belongings so then a person is not meant
to himself directly
break the Shabbos in order to save
himself a monetary loss we do have a
principle that a person is allowed to
ask a non-jew an instructor namjoo to do
something which itself is only is is
forbidden by the robonon in other words
asking energy to do something for you on
Shabbos is the sulfurbating prohibition
and if you're asking him to do something
which is also opening prohibition so
that's so that so then the Allah tells
us that asking a nanju to do something
which is prohibited europeanically is a
permissible in the case of loss or
substantial loss so asking non-jew to
telephone to call the police generally
we understand let's say using a
telephone is doesn't involve any fire
any heat it involves electricity there
is discussion among those skin but the
the more the primary opinion is that
that's uh we're bringing prohibition so
therefore one one is allowed and one can
ask a non-june tell them on to instruct
a nanju to call the police if the person
sees not only if he sees the person
breaking into his store where it's
already in the the robberies already in
the process of happening but if he sees
suspicious people looking into his car
and it looks like they're about to steal
it what about if he sees them walking
away they really did they really stole
and if they already stole something
right so again if he sees the crime
about to happen and it involves it's
going to involve some monetary loss to
him
um so then again he should ask the
laundry to call the police if the crimes
already happened so then it would depend
that's a very good question it depends
on the situation if it's something where
the rubber is still in the area and if
the police came right away they'd be
able to apprehend the Rubber and
therefore thereby prevents further
similar incidents happening so then yes
then a person should ask a namjoon to
call the police and the police will come
and hopefully we'll uprend the rubber if
it's already been
um if that's not the situation for
example if a person wakes up in the
morning and their car has been broken
into and it happens presumably sometime
in the middle of the night and there
Arbor is long gone and there's no
evidence and it's just just a question
of informing the police but it's nothing
that they can there's no there's nothing
they can really do about it immediately
so then then it can he waits till after
suppose includes telling Andrew about it
and allowed you to do whatever he wants
but to instruct the magic to call the
police I don't think you should do
another oh that's a good example this
car is broken into
um
I mean there's probably not that much
right they can do and you know what I
would probably just walk to the nearest
7-Eleven to always seem to be police
officers there and we tell them directly
yeah you can definitely tell them if the
police officer comes and you talk to him
he's going to write down the information
that's fine that's not the problem
you're not telling him to do that
um but um and that's fine even though
you know he's going to do it and even
though it's clear as he's saying World
by well he's running it down that's not
your concern and you're allowed to do
that unless maybe unless it happens you
know for sure he's Jewish then that
might be an issue but uh generally
that's not the case so let's take uh
let's move on to alarm systems which is
something that people uh you know what
they want to have to protect themselves
but they don't work so so well with job
is because how do you walk out your
front door if the alarm is on right so
you want to be able to walk
walk in your front door even though it's
it's um it's alarm so there's a bypass
switches let's talk a little bit about
that issue
all right so um a very very common
question
um
um a person the person has to think
about this week before jobs comes in
obviously a person should uh when a
person before a person buys an alarm
system a person should look into the
various uh things that are out there
there are there are people who install
uh from people who installed but know
the different ins and outs of the right
right or from people buy their switches
these are the people who from people who
run these kind of businesses have been
in contact with robonim and have uh and
have a gobstock him and they will be
able to present to tell you what to do
not only from a practical standpoint but
also from my logic standpoints and the
great sources of information in general
if you really have an alarm system in
your house
so um what a person would want to do is
have the alarm system set up in such a
way that the alarm will go off if his
windows get broken or things like that
but he wants to be able to walk with his
front door without setting the alarm off
so generally they have some way that a
person should be able to bypass the
front door
um now the two ways you can bypass the
front door you can bypass the front door
that's
the alarm will not ring when you go
through the door but the system will
still be a wearable still in the
computer will still know that somebody's
going through the slow motion sensor
which is detecting you're supposed to
going through the door just that it
doesn't actually cause the alarm to go
off and then there's also sometimes you
can bypass the whole motion sensor
itself so ideally that would be the best
thing to do if you could uh if you could
make it they're going through the front
door doesn't uh the computer doesn't
even recognize that doesn't even
register that would be the best if if if
that's not the case if the computer will
know will know is I mean there could be
no in the sense that computer will uh
that'll you know the computer will
gather that information the computer
well the motion sensor will detect it
wasn't going through the door but it
will not cause the alarm to go off
so that's a question which doesn't have
to ask the moon behind me over here the
posting for the stock a his General
stock is that the criteria for Malacca
taking place in Charlotte for
appropriation think business Shabbos is
that the event has to be something which
is perceptible to one of the five human
senses
so if a person walks through the front
door even if the computer registers it
but it no alarm goes off and nothing
visible happens no lines change no no
displays my changes right nothing you
don't see anything nothing happens then
that's fine now many people
misunderstand this they think that if I
have the if I have the system in in my
garage down my nons in the garage that
makes it fine that's not what he means
because that is visible to the human
senses it's just that you're not there
to see it but it is visible that would
not be acceptable even if you go and you
cover it up and then you so then I can't
see it because it's not it's not visible
to me no that's not that's not included
within this header and that's closing
your eyes doesn't mitigate the problem
but if it's something about let me just
summarize if I have a bypass right on
the front door and um and I open it and
now I can open the door and nothing
there's no lights that change there's no
nothing on the keypad doesn't register
you know Zone One open nothing happened
I don't see anything there's isn't
anything that's happening it's all
internal I know the computer knows that
it's open that's right behind me says is
okay right correct correct okay correct
all right very good
um
so I I just want to point out that well
while he was speaking earlier Franco I
twisted the microphone to the opposite
way and it seems to have affected the
sound quality much better so not
everything is so so sophisticated
sometimes there's simple answers to the
the difficult questions
okay now sometimes the person uh sets
his alarm and the alarm
he puts on the bypass and everything but
somehow he made a mistake and the alarm
goes off on jobs so what's going to
happen is that the uh the the police are
going to come in a sense right if you
have it set up like that the police will
come and they'll see it's a false alarm
is there anything that you should or
can't do about that that situation
that's a good question so the different
the different ways that the police might
find out about its income some alarm
systems are directly connected I'm also
technically a dead advance but my
understanding is that the sum alarm
systems which are directly connected to
the police station that as soon as the
loan goes it'll register and they'll
they'll they'll automatically know about
it and then there are other systems
where it'll make a loud noise but
somebody would have to inform the police
about it
um if the police are going to well
usually the way I think the way it works
here at least in Baltimore is you if you
want the police to come you have to have
a central monitoring station that will
uh you know get the registered alarm
they will call you
right so they will call you and then
they will ask you if it's a false alarm
or not and if you don't answer or you
say there's an emergency then then
they'll send it so they're going to call
you okay that makes sense so they're
going to prove you right so the question
is are you allowed to pick up the phone
and answer them so again
um
think every person should again uh
should ask their own Rabbi I'm not sure
if this is universally agreed upon if I
may understand it from a behind him and
my conversations I've had with him
um is that because he's concerns that if
people have these systems and there are
alarms go off and no one picks and you
don't pick up the phone because it's
Shabbos and then the police are going to
come and then they're going to get there
and they're going to see it's a false
alarm and they're going to ask you why
didn't you pick up the phone and you're
going to say because it's Shabbos and
then it's going to happen a second time
then it's going to happen a third time
So eventually after eventually uh soon
enough they're like they're one or two
Chef bosses the police are going to say
yeah you know the the the you know
they're not going to take it seriously
and then they're not going to respond so
therefore therefore it is very important
you know even though even though right
now it might be a false alarm but if we
want them to turn up when there is a
real emergency when there is a real case
of piku off in their fish which can
which is which If there really is a book
again as I said before there really is a
rubber taking place then it is a case of
so therefore it's necessary that the
police take us seriously and therefore
if necessary a person could could
respond it doesn't mind you were
available then that would be the best
but that's generally not the case
there's some good response a person
could try and respond to the shimli
maybe to take off the phone with uh in
an unusual way with the elbows on my
trucks it could lead to a because if you
don't if you don't basically basically
basically I believe that my vitamin
feels that a person can't answer if
necessary again but this is something
she wasn't really trying to avoid but
you know people are a person has to take
you know we don't want to do this we
don't want to break Shabbos if we you
know even even in a way which is uh
entering the phone again
but we don't want to do this but
somebody has to make sure before Javas
that they said the system up properly
properly again it's quite common I get
these questions people come on Shabbos I
forgot to set it up I forgot to do this
you know when a person wants to really
uh be part of the regular Friday
schedules they make sure it's set up
well but yes I had it once years ago
years ago maybe a decade ago where my
alarm went off I didn't set it right
I didn't
I didn't pick up the phone and the
police came maybe it was very like lazy
kind of they came like a half hour on
shop this afternoon half hour later I
don't know what their response time is
normally but I did get the sense that
they probably felt oh it's a Saturday
afternoon is that air that neighborhood
probably not anything serious and I told
them when you know it went up by mistake
and they left but since then
whenever I want to open a window or that
might be alarmed I checked to make sure
that I'm allowed to ask one of my
children to go check the switches to
make sure that they're set that I could
open the window and thank God I haven't
had that I haven't had a false alarm
since then so I'm just you know I think
I agree with you you have to be be very
careful not to take it lightly that you
might yeah and we have to be very
careful that the police did not kind of
dismiss it dismiss us because they think
that we don't take it seriously
um it's important that they that they
that they take it seriously response so
therefore whatever occasionally that
happens okay
um
I want to ask you something about um
about having a person alphabet has it
there we go
has a has a uh you know they were
setting some fires the the Riders were
setting fires what happens if in case of
fire but I want to tell you this this
morning I was looking around
um
and I found some interesting discussions
about like J David Blythe has a safer on
on various halachic issues and um and he
discussed it there and uh he brings from
the Sicily azer in 1948 and in later
years in Israel they have had
need to leave their radio on on on
Chavez
to be able to hear any important
announcements and I was thinking what
would be if you know I don't think that
this Shabbos is going to be you know it
looks like things are coming down it
doesn't look like we need to be on edge
as much
um but what would be if what happened
yet Monday would be Shabbos we certainly
would want to be informed of what's
going on and we don't really have any
way of knowing are they are are the
rights moving up to the Jewish Community
or not so you know would it be permitted
to leave a radio on
um yeah I wasn't going to leave his
radio on just you should leave it on at
a low volume in other words um it's it's
considered the results in Laguna yeah
like a like disparaging the Shabbos if
there's louds and louds uh noise coming
from a machine in the person's house
um in an unusual way I mean air
conditioners we live on all the time
that's right the same but uh so having a
loud video
um that that would not be appropriate
for Shabbos but if the necessary person
could live on a radio on a low volume
and then walk over next to the radio and
sit down and listen to the news if they
felt that it was necessary for them to
uh to know a joint conceptualis what's
taking place so the city says that uh to
leave a note on it like on the knobs
that says shop is kovish so you wouldn't
come to fiddle with it and everybody
should know that I know that a job is
and I'm just doing this for security as
Josh points out in in in Israel they
have a um a silent station that doesn't
broadcast anything it
shot is silent on Shabbos unless there's
an emergency and then and then they
broadcast of course in Israel there's
another issue that we don't wouldn't
have over here which is that the the
people broadcasting are Jews themselves
and uh and you would be listening to
their whatever you know if you didn't
have this special station uh you may
that that causes another concern America
that's not an issue Israel has this this
problem which is not really part of our
uh something which we really uh on our
minds but they're the police such a wish
everyone's Jewish right whatever you're
doing is not involving your commercials
potentially but also the the that of the
responders as well that's that's a good
point the other thing that he brings out
of my life is um what if
um you have a caterer
um and there's a okay there is a running
an event
and um and there is some security
concerns and
so so they had a uh a wedding planned
and there was some uh a war or concern
and so the question is when the the uh
the customer is canceled
uh because they couldn't make it from
the United States wherever they were
coming they canceled the event
and the caterer could not book an event
last minute so he had he had a loss
and he discusses what what what who has
to pay for it and so on uh his bottom
line is Rabbi blush is sort of is that
it's an indirect loss it's not a direct
cause uh of a loss and
um He suggests that if
the the customer did not yet pay then he
would not have to pay but if he did put
down a deposit he would not be able to
get his deposit back
um so you know that could be something
that could that could happen as well I
mean if there were if there's a uh a
wedding we had that was not not in this
situation but a few years ago when there
was some blizzards we had that kind of
uh story where where the weddings that
were curtailed I don't know if they were
canceled but the people couldn't come it
may depend on the fine prints in the
contract right okay I'm sure there's
something that the caterer probably has
something in there to protect himself in
that case right
um okay so let's talk a little bit about
a fire uh if there's a fire let's say
you know the rides reach the Jewish area
and he sees his his home is on fire what
does he allowed to do what must he do
what can he do right so
um
um technically the absence of a lot of
factors
would be that if if there's a fire which
is burning down on the person's house
and that was for sure no danger to
anybody's life this house was the middle
of an empty field and there was no one
in the house so then a person pulling
out a fire is one of the putting out a
fire at the one of the malachas on
Shabbos is lighting a fire extinguishing
a fire and a person that would not be
allowed to extinguish the fire and this
house would burn down however there that
that's uh that's practically speaking we
would not apply that because we live in
urban areas and the assumption is is
that if a house catches fire the fire
will spread and the neighboring houses
and even if there's no one in this house
there will be people in neighboring
houses and there's a potential uh case
of
um and therefore therefore nowadays if
there's a fire a person would be allowed
to put out the fire himself if necessary
and certainly yeah and certainly he
would be allowed to
call the the fire station to come and
put out the fire
um I think that the the primary lesson
that we should learn from the Camaro
which says that person should not not
put out the fire is not a practical
lesson but perhaps uh ethical muscle
lesson that you have this person who
owns a house and it's everything he owns
is getting burned down and Chavez is
more valuable than that he's he would
have to he would uh it would be worth it
for him to keep Shabbos even though he's
going to suffer the loss of everything
he has so we can learn from that the
importance of Shabbos for our
practically speaking to accept a
potential uh uh danger to life that
would ensue in an urban area if there's
a fire a person could put the fire out
um if I would just at least at least the
fire which is I mean potential it might
spread a person could put that fire out
and a person could certainly call
um call people professionals to come
without the fight I remember when I was
um I heard he wants to share from
represent from from Yu and he said when
he was younger he was at his
father-in-law's table his father-in-law
was a big big uh Thomas and there was a
fire at the table the the candles
um uh fell and the tablecloth
uh caught fire
so you know what do you do what do you
do what should we do so they asked they
asked the father-in-law what should we
do I mean luckily what should we do so
he said he couldn't focus for a second
he said get a missionary with a good
index because he wanted
I have to look it up I don't remember so
but anyway okay they didn't that was
sort of they took the the tablecloth and
they put it into the bathtub and then it
you know that was a practical way of
extinguishing it right so yeah I think
that that's important lesson from the
story which is that even though as I
just said if there's any potential
danger to to human life a person could
put out a fire but um that's not always
the case sometimes they're very
localized fires and we have a principle
that even though
um even even though we said that a
person should not put out a fire if
there's no possible danger but uh
indirectly putting out a fire is
permissible if it's a place where in
situation where there might be some loss
so if the table cloth catches fire and
once for sure allowed to uh according to
everybody in any situation
um one's allowed to pour water around
the the edges of the fire so that when
the fire the fire will spread it'll get
extinguished ones for sure allowed to do
what you said to pick up the tablecloth
and Take It Outside put it in the
bathtub put it in a place where the fire
cannot spread so so um but if you if you
have any suspicion that that won't work
right then you should just put it out if
there's any even a remote possibility
that it might just push that but if it's
clear that there's a another solution
and then you should do that and again
um what the person can call ground
cableing which is putting out the fire
through a groma again putting uh putting
the putting water around the sides or
putting the object in place with the
fire will go by itself that's certainly
permissible we can do that uh
um you know himself without any any
Quantum so what can a person do to
mitigate any uh fire problem before
Shabbos what should he be doing so you
know apart from the rights that we had
here in Baltimore and then rest we had
this really tragic incident in New York
uh not long ago where there was this uh
again tragic fire which unfortunately
caused the loss of life
um and um
I think that's um
uh in person has to take the heart that
when we see such a tragic things taking
place we have to take to heart and uh
and make sure that we are fully
protected
um the most basic protection of course
is that smoke detectors in every room in
a person's house walking smoke detectors
it's going to take the future person
checks and make sure they're working
there's those basic uh basic protection
that a person can't just say you know
I'm gonna trust them Hashem person has
to do the basic things that he needs to
protect himself very important that a
person do that person has to be very
careful again that this this instantly
strip based in New York a person has
devices which are made for sharps use
but unfortunately they're not
necessarily always made by people who
have the technical sophistication to
make sure that their equipment is
completely safe I think that we have to
appreciate something which the stocking
has done which is stocky was the forerun
in the leader in which is that the
Starkey works with companies that
manufacture ovens like GE and other
companies some of the companies
to get them to make the models in such a
way that they're compatible for use with
uh you know on YouTube and and then it
comes with their warranty and their
protection and their Engineers are
guaranteeing the safety
um something that you will person wants
to buy equipment which again and does
the Underwriters Laboratory the you know
it has a symbol on it that has been
checked it's been that we know it's safe
business to be very careful with their
sharp scandals again people sometimes I
feel are not careful enough they like it
every week so they get used to it and
they don't think about the fact that
they have this open fire they're in
their house the person has to be very
careful to uh the candles in place which
is safe so now leave them on attendance
if there's any possibility that doesn't
invention must take place sometimes the
so it's very unfortunate you know it's
so easy for the candles to shift
um they people have these little oil
containers which they put oil in and
they light but the glass containers can
crack and then
things can the fires can spread person
wants to make very short very careful
that they're um very very that they make
sure that they're really careful when I
grew up this was back in England I was
born in England when I was a teenager
that was this really tragic incidents
where people where people had um candles
they left them near their curtains their
curtains got to caught fire and again
there was a loss of life a real tragedy
um even though a person's doing a
Mitzvah and we do have a principle but
the person doing a Mitzvah chamber takes
but tomorrow tells us that they're not
in a situation where the damage whether
whether the potential for harm is common
then a person's expected to protect
himself so um the person person has to
protect himself again ultimately a
person can never avoid real uncommon
things when it comes to really uncommon
things person has to have the trust in
the bones
will protect them but things which are
common and foreseeable and uh and
relatively likely to happen so that's a
person responsibility to to take the
steps necessary to avoid anything
unfortunate happening okay Robbie
Frankel thank you so much you think
we'll take that opportunity to uh to
close the webinar if you have any
questions that uh that you'd like to to
address to the star k or Jeremy Frankel
uh send them to info
star-k.org and what's your your email
directly hello
okay thank you reach you directly if you
have any questions 410-484-4110
um if you'd like to be on our list of uh
to be informed of when we're having the
webinars in
um what topic it would be uh send us an
email again to info star Dash K info at
star-k.org or give us a ring
um
I see there's been some discussion back
and forth about uh
um
discussion about how uh calling not
solid itself could be the topic for a
whole webinar but I do what I do want to
say to address that just briefly is that
the Han solos are usually very well
connected with their abundant and
they're asking their their questions
about Shabbos and they have a lot of
guidance as to what they do
um and so usually there's they know
exactly what uh what is what is okay and
what is not
um I want to thank everybody for joining
us and uh thank Miss Debbie Rosenstein
for helping us uh a technical side and
Rabbi roof enchantment also these
webinars are recorded and archived
um you can you can get them at
kosherclasses.org
or you can look on Vimeo and type in
Star dash star Dash K
kosher and you'll come up with all of
our webinars thanks very much everybody
will hope everybody will be safe have a
great week take care be well