Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan - Laws of Purim

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Selam good morning today we are going to learn laws of podium brief laws poor food him and I will mention some Halle hood that are specifically for women ad are the month that were in now is a time of joy time of happiness Hamim say that the two months Adar and Nissan are months of miracles because in these two months we have Pesa and poutine poutine we were threatened with annihilation and we were saved and Pesa we were in slavery in mid time in Egypt and we would stay in slavery forever if Hashem didn't take us out and therefore when month of Adar comes we celebrate and we are happy and the happiness is not only because of something that happened a long time ago whenever we go through the calendar it's like a spiral that is going higher and higher and every time we pass through the same time period of the year we go through the same spiritual energy that is available and that is coming down from sham I'm at that time so the time of podium and Pesa is a time of happiness this is the time that we can access happiness and therefore it's not only celebrating long past times but right now we are experiencing the same influence from heaven so much so that even if you have a court case with a non-jew you should schedule it with with him in this month in Adar why because you're going to be more successful why because it is a time that is more lucky for the Jewish people more successful for us and it has an actual effect on our life there are many myths for that we perform in the month of Adar related to put him and it starts with this coming Shabbat this coming Shabbat is called Shabbat suhoor the Shabbat of Remembrance what do we remember we read the Portia the Torah portion of Amalek in Parshat Kotetsu at the end of the parasha we read that Amalek attacked us on our way from Egypt and they rebelled against God and His people and therefore for the rest of history we have to remember and when we have opportunity to wipe that nation out the man have the Torah obligation to listen the Torah reading and to remember amalek and for women it's not at all obligation but it is highly recommended for women to go to the synagogue and they listen to the reading they will have special readings for women at other times before min ha find out from your shoe but if a woman is not able to go it is ok she is she is not obligated according to Todd it's only a min hug and therefore if it is hard for her to fulfill it she doesn't need to go to listen to party shut the hole yes Ashkenazim general are more strict about these readings and they they try much harder than safar him to listen to Parishad Zahar for safar them if it's hard if a woman is with children she is not feeling well so far the women don't go at all Ashkenazi women will try special to to go even if it's hard this is this coming Shabbat March 16th then the following week we have tiny Astaire on tonight Astaire we commemorate the fast that Astaire asked the Jewish people to do she asked Mordechai that you should announce to the entire Jewish people that they should fast for three days but these three days included the nights in between as well so they were fasting for 72 hours straight the entire Jewish nation and we don't do that we only fast one day and not even the entire day only from when you wake up until nightfall actually if you wake up earlier it's only from dawn which is around 6 a.m. nowadays until about 7:20 p.m. on this coming not this Wednesday the following Wednesday the fast start is from dawn until about 15 20 minutes after Shakya so it's about 7:20 who fasts every Jewish man and woman fasts if they can however if a person is sick they don't have to fast if a lady is pregnant or nursing they don't have to fast this fast is more lenient than all the other fasts of the year we have one fast a year that is dough raita which is Yom Kippur and we have four fasts that are rabbinic but they are mentioned in the prophets in naveen and because they mentioned in the prophets they are more strict that the fast of astaire is not mentioned in the prophets it's a later decree post prophet year because the the story of Purim happened after the destruction of the first beta mick - and the the other four fasts are mentioned in Tanna they were decreed during the first beta me - and the they are the tenth of a vet as rubato vet they are Chivas Alberta moose the 17th of Tammuz - Shaba of the ninth of our and the last one is the fast of Gedaliah TomTom Gedaliah but for those fast also if a person is sick he doesn't have to fast but Tonya tester is even more lenient if you have a hat on and Colada got married few days before tonight Astaire and their chef Abra Haute falls on Tonya the steppe they don't have to fast or if a person is he is healthy but he's just a little bit weak a little bit not feeling well he is allowed to postpone the fast he is not exempt but he is allowed to eat on the the day and fast a few days later when he is stronger so generally women that gave birth within the last 24 months don't have to fast there are stricter opinions that say that as only as long as she is actively nursing she doesn't have to fast if she stopped nursing then she should fast but if person needs he can follow the more lenient opinion that as long as she is within 24 months after giving birth she doesn't have to fast similarly a pregnant woman some are strict that it only starts from 3 months of pregnancy in a second and third trimester but some are lenient that even from the beginning as soon as she finds out that she's pregnant she doesn't have to fast children according to safar them don't have to fast if they want only a couple hours just in the morning that you delay their breakfast by a little bit but we don't require children to fast even for he know before their Bar or Bat Mitzvah they can fast just one fast they can try it out if it's hard for them even that fast they can break if it's difficult for them this fast is not like the Shabaab Netaji yom kippur and you are allowed to take a shower if necessary and you don't have to stay away from leather shoes that is only forty Shabab and yom kippur so tonight Esther is on 13th of Adar which this year falls next Wednesday and put him is on Thursday Wednesday night and Thursday Tania tester is usually the day before put him unless poutine falls on Sunday and then target Astaire would be on Shabbat but since Shabbat we don't fast so we fast earlier on Thursday before however this year since Purim is on Thursday we'll fast the day before on Wednesday yes usually we postpone the fast but this fast is special because as they ask Mordecai the Jew the Jewish people should fast before she goes to King Ahaz garage because she needed the Jewish people to have more merit and because of that they needed to fast before she goes and therefore we fast before putting and what we wanted when the tiniest errors on Shabbat we cannot postpone because then is gonna be after put him so we do it on Thursday before now on tonight astaire we have another Mitzvah and that is a mean hug it's a custom it's not from Torah that is called the Harlem heceta shaker in times of botanic - the Jewish people were obligated to donate half a shekel a year every male over 20 years of age and this money was used for korbanot throughout the year we bring two animals every day on Shabbat two additional animals from Mustafa offering and since every Jewish household participates in this offering in this donation that means that throughout the year every Jewish person participates in the offerings brought in Beit HaMikdash every day so nowadays we don't have better mix - but as a memory for that we called Zachary Lama had set a shekel memory for maja Tita shaken and nowadays since its memory we do it but not only the head of the household we tell everybody to do it because nowadays it has a second significance and that is when Herman came to a Scottish garage to kill the entire Jewish nation a hodgepodge said I will gladly do it but I have one problem and that is the Jewish people pay taxes and the royal treasury is going to lack these funds so Hammond said I'm willing to pay you everything that the Jewish people paid until now and so ha maan offered a cash barrage a large sum of money to cover the entire Jewish nation so we give ma heceta shekels a her Lama had set a shekel before Purim in order to say Hashem Herman wanted to buy every Jew every Jewish life and to kill them so we are going to come before him and we're gonna redeem ourselves so this money is a Haram aha' tadaa shekel in our times serves as a Redemption money and therefore everybody gives it not only man over 20 but all men and all women and even children and not only that even children that are still in mother's womb the fetuses you give for them as well and this is like redemption for them this guarantees their success and survival for the coming year so how much is Zachary m'hijita shekel in times of atomic - the Jewish people gave a coin worth half a shekel and that coin were weighed about 10 grams between 9 and 10 grams of pure silver it was a silver coin with a weight of 10 grams so nowadays the price of silver for about 10 grams is about $6 so every person should give for himself 6 dollars and for every member of his household including yet unborn children and for each person give together all together and you can give it either to poor people or to Torah institutions either issue board cube organisations or synagogues and preferably this money should be given on tiny tester before putting now if tanita stair is pushed back like in a year when podium is on sunday tiny the stairs on thursday so then you don't have to give it on Tonya tester because you still have time before podium you can give it on Thursday you can give it on Friday or even Malaysia but before Magilla reading and in synagogues they're going to have special collection bins on the Beamer usually four different synagogues and he/she bought and poor people so the man can put the money there for his whole household but being that it is not a tour obligation it's only a mean Hogzilla maja - a column remembering Mahathir the shaker if person cannot afford it he can be lenient what are the Linnaean sees one leniency is what the Ashkenazim rely on is that they say you don't have to give half of a shackle that was the original shackle in times of atomic - you can give half of a coin of your current currency and that is since we use dollars they say it's enough to give half a dollar so people who cannot afford to give six dollars per person they can give half a dollar per person and there is a medium opinion that says that since the word Karuma donation is mentioned three times in parshat ki Tisa you should give three times that amount which is half a dollar three times so in the synagogue they will have coins of fifty cents each and the person would put a dollar fifty into the collection bin and he will take these coins pick them up and say I'm giving this Zahara the McArthur the shaker and put them back so you have three opinions ideally six dollars per person for every member in your household second is dollar fifty and the third is fifty cents each and the person cannot afford even that then he doesn't have to do it yes and if you cannot give it directly to synagogue or to at our institution you can do it online or you can send a messenger and ask somebody to give it for you that's perfectly fine either way it's fine whether you do it yourself or you ask somebody to give it for you is the same thing now after tinytest air starts pouring when Purim starts even though tiny tests are finished at 7:20 were not allowed to eat until we listen to Magilla however if somebody is not feeling well he is weak he is tired he cannot concentrate on Magilla in any of these cases he is allowed to eat a little bit he's not allowed to eat a whole meal but if necessary he can drink and eat a snack but ideally you should first read the Megillah the Megillah takes about half an hour to 40 minutes 45 minutes and then we break our fast so if if they start reading a lie around 7:20 that means at 8 o'clock you'll be able to eat the first Mitzvah of Purim is reading the Megillah we read Magilla twice on pudding once at night one during the day both are obligatory the one at during the day is considered on the higher level and therefore if for some reason a person can only hear once he should choose the one during the day but the proper thing is to listen to both night and day two times Magilla reading both for men and women are obligated and children also for you know those that are below Bar Mitzvah they should still come as long as they can handle the 40 minutes of torah of Magilla reading it's important to choose a synagogue where you know that you'll be able to hear the Megillah properly a synagogue where there's not so much noise or if there is noise the balcony the one who reads the Megillah is patient he's gonna wait until the noise subsides and only then she's going to continue because if if you miss even a word of Magilla you have to read Magilla again and therefore you have to pay attention you can just listen you don't have to read along if you choose to read along you still have to listen unless you have a kosher Magilla if you have a kosher Magilla in front of you you can read yourself otherwise don't read just follow with your eyes and listen however what is a kosher Megillah not a hamas a printed Nagila in a Hamas is not kosher for reading to fulfill the mitzvot you can follow along but the kosher Magilla has to be written on a kosher parchment similar parchment to setter Torah from a kosher animal written with special culture ink and by a professional scribe so fair so whoever doesn't have a kosher Magilla should make sure to pay attention and listen to every word before reading Magilla we make three blessings by night we say the blessing of Sharia no the blessing of Hassan is similar booty no on the miracles and the blessing for the Megillah in the reverse order first the blessing on Magilla then the knee seem the miracles and then Sharia no thanking Hashem for bringing us to this time for giving us life to give us for giving us opportunity to fulfill all these myths vote and therefore you have to keep in mind that when when the Hassan says chef hayan you answer a man you have to keep in mind to include in - Ariano all other meats out of the day and they are the second reading in the morning and matter not leave uni and Mishlove manat and the Purim Sudha we're going to speak about each one separately Ashkenazim make cheryan in the morning as well but first for Adam we only make one Sharia no that covers the entire pudding after you read the Megillah you can break your fast at night there is no Mitzvah to eat put him through that the mitzvah to eat pudding Sudha is only during the day so you read the Megillah you break your fast and then the following morning you have more meets wad of pudding after men pray they read Mickey last second time same rules as the first night just we don't say Sharia no second time then they come home and then women can go and there is a second reading in some synagogues like Bill Gabriel they have a reading of Magilla every hour from early morning till every hour they have a reading then after the second reading both men and women come home and now they have three minutes vote Poonam Sudha maternal avian him and miss Lama not put him Sudha the poor Emile supposed to be during the day and their different opinions when during the day some say that it should be enough to noon the late afternoon and that is the custom of majority of people they either put him through that 4 or 5 o'clock about an hour two hours before Shakya and you have to try to eat majority of your Sudha when it's still day however with the Avadh as long as you ate at least one cos I'd one ounce of bread before skier before sunset you fulfill your obligation and even though your meal continues into the night you can still say Birkat Hamazon with the special edition of Allah Nasim in bukit amazon however there is a second opinion and that is the opinion of mokuba lean and municipal scheme follow that that the put'em Sudha should be done as early in the morning as possible which means right away when you come home from prayers and Magilla reading you should sit down and have a meal that means around ten eleven o'clock in the morning before noon before had thought you should have your Poonam Sudha and of course ideal is to fulfill both of these opinions to eat once you die at ten eleven o'clock and then the second you diet four five six o'clock in the afternoon now there is an additional benefit to eat Sudar early is that after Sudha you will be able to take a nap in afternoon and having taking nap on podium is is very good why because not only we had difficult night and we woke up early and we're running around delivering gifts but additionally we have an obligation not only to eat on podium also obligation to drink on potent men have obligation to drink wine and to become drunk but not everybody can become drunk and not everybody can afford to become drunk because if a person will act inappropriately he's not allowed to drink what is he supposed to do so here you can rely on the leniency that if a person drinks a little bit a little bit more than usual and then he goes to sleep it's counted as if he is drunk why because the whole idea of being drunk is not to differentiate between evil Haman and the Blessed Mordecai to show that things don't depend on our understanding on our logic Hashem runs the show even if we think this is good for us this is not good for us leave it up to a sham let Hashem take care of it and therefore we say Hashem the story of Purim is not our the hood not our married you did the whole thing we even gonna drink we're gonna become drunk we're not going to know what's the difference we're gonna rely on you so the person can achieve the same if you goes to sleep so taking a nap afternoon after your meal fulfills that obligation and therefore it's recommended that person should eat a meal in the morning and then another meal in afternoon now during put him through that it's good to eat bread so that you can say with cotta Mazzone with a special additional NEC however one is not required to eat bread unlike Shabbat in yom tov where we are supposed to eat bread on Purim you are not obligated and because of that comes a difference that if you forget to say Allen is seem in bill cotta Mazzone on Purim you don't have to go back and repeat the cut Amazon however on Shabbat when the meals are obligatory if you forget red save a holiday no you have to repeat the kata Mazzone the first two meals the night and lunch but you'll actually even shabbat if you say bearcat amazon and you forget it say you don't repeat baccata Mazzone however even though bread is not obligatory but the person should try to eat bread and meat because meat and wine for men gives happiness to a person and since on podium we're happy we have to eat delicious foods that make us happy so now about drinking men have obligation to drink and become drunk to the point that they cannot differentiate between what's evil and what's good however that is a tall order for some men if you know from experience that you can drink and you can handle yourself well meaning that you don't become aggressive that you don't become angry that you don't scream that you don't curse you fulfill all the mitzvoth properly then you have obligation to drink and become drunk however if you know that if you drink from experience you say bad things you do bad things you miss Burke at Amazon mean Harvey or any other Mitzvah you hurt people has a Shalom then you're not allowed to drink and either don't drink at all or just drink a little bit a little bit more than usual if usually you may drink a sip of wine and with your meal or an ounce drink one and a half ounces two ounces and that's it we cannot do mitzvoth if they will cause us to do add a road and of course such a person should use the leniency that I mentioned before that you should eat and drink a little bit and go to sleep and by sleeping his fulfill mitzvot now the next two myths world of Purim armata not leave unum and miss las manos Martinelli of your name our gift to poor and these are monetary gifts for the purpose of poor people buying for poor him then what they need food you give them money a little bit money and they will be able to fulfill the Mitzvah of saudade for him with that money the Mitzvah is to give to to poor people each person in your household should give to monetary gifts to two to poor people how much enough for a poor person to buy a meal what's a meal you it can go anywhere from $2 for the most basic meal a bagel with cream cheese or to a more fancy meal with some chicken or meat like a shwarma for ten dollars a person so ideally a person should give two dollars to two poor people every member of your household men women children over Bar or Bat Mitzvah have obligation children under Bar or Bat Mitzvah the parents have obligation to train them for he knew and so therefore parents should either give the money and they donated or parents donated on their account and you inform your child who is already of age that he can understand what giving sadaqa is that I gave money for you to a poor person so ideally a person should give two dollars for two people however if he can afford he should go beyond the letter of the law and give poor person enough that he can buy an honorable meal not only bagel cream cheese but a nice meal for ten dollars so that would mean that you give ten dollars to one per person and ten dollars to another poor person that means the adults in the family would give twenty dollars split it between two people and if you if it's hard for you you can follow the most strict opinion for adults for the husband and wife 20 dollars per person and for children you can already follow the more lenient opinion of two dollars now the even more lenient opinion is that if it's hard for person to afford two dollars as long as he gives a worth of a proton which some say it's 25 cents some say it's five cents that he can buy even a slice of bread a minimal minimal meal you will fulfill that your obligation and therefore if you are talking to a person who cannot afford at all so tell him give 25 cents or even give 5 cents to to poor people yes if you give if you provide them with a meal then you fulfill the obligation also now a question is asked how do I know if a person is truly poor how do I check if he is not lying that he really deserves the money and here the rule is different than the rest of the year during the year you are supposed to inquire is he honest try to find out to the best of your ability where is my money going because I have limited resources I would rather give my money to a good cause and not to swindler but on Purim it's different on Purim we say Kolhapur shed yard not nila anyone who stretches his hand will give him you're not obligated on put him to ask somebody says I'm poor give me my toe not Leone you can give yes the poor person has to be Jewish if you're not sure when they claim to be Jewish fine on Putin we don't ask and no is that we can pray Hashem to give us anything we want because just like we don't ask whoever extends his hand we give so to Hashem treats us if we ask him anything we want Hashem says I'm not asking questions I'm not I'm just giving it to you so because of that podium is a good time to pray for your needs but you have to do your part then give freely to anyone who comes to your door if you don't ask and you give Hashem is not going to ask you and he's gonna give the last Mitzvah for the day is michl Ohama not miss Lama not means sending portions of food to your friends and those that you want to become your friends this is a good opportunity to develop relationship with somebody who is more distant from you during the year if you send them a basket of food they're gonna be suspicious why is he saying sending it to me but on Purim they expected they know to Jewish holiday when you're supposed to and they will appreciate your gesture of friendship and maybe from then on you will become friendly the obligation is to send this basket of food to one Jew so every member of the household sends it to their friend one person how much two items of food ideally should be food there are some who allow one of the items to be a drink for example challah with a bottle of wine some authorities say that they must both be food and therefore at least for one miss la mano the one that is your Mitzvah you send two items of food you should send it through a messenger and they should be in two separate containers however even if you deliver it yourself without a messenger it still counts even if one of the items is a drink as long as it's a significant drink like wine or grape juice it counts and even if they are both in the same container but the Avadh it counts even if they are of the same braja but you have added counts but again ideally for one miss Rama know that you sending for your Mitzvah try to send it according to all opinions that you should deliver it that there should be two items of food that they should be wrapped separately and they should be of two different blessings for example fruits and pastries add and measure note you can give to your relatives as well yes yes yes yes if they are not available if they're not home you can just leave it by the door as long as they're going to get it or you can even send it through mail as long as it's going to be delivered on pudding because just like the other two meats what the Purim Judah and matter not leave your name which LACMA not has to be done on the day of pudding you cannot fulfill the mitzvot the night of Purim you cannot fulfill it Tanya to stare and you cannot fulfill it after Putin it's still a good idea to send because people are going to feel good about it but you have to send at least one on podium itself don't they need to know that it's from you but the note or yes right right the whole idea of mr. Lachman odd is to develop friendship between people and therefore if they are not gonna know who sent it you're going to be missing that aspect you fulfilled part of your obligation that you actually sent because one of the reasons why we send food is so that people eat it on Purim and therefore it should be something edible that they don't have to prepare it they don't have to cook it and it should be something that they there is a chance that they actually going to eat it so it's not recommended to send the junk food because people most likely are just gonna put it in a closet or they're gonna send it to someone else on podium or they're just gonna throw it out because it's not healthy so it's a good idea to send healthy food at least for one of your Mishlove manat because that will that will fulfill the obligation for you according to all opinions now we have many myths what to do throughout the year and on put him and because we have many myths what we have to choose prior priorities which mitzvoth should we dedicate more of our resources for both money and time should it be the Purim sudha than the preparation and eating the Purim meal should it be the Mishlove manat preparation buying food baskets or should it be motto not leave uni because if I spend my time and money on one I will have less time and money for the other which one is the most important so Hakka meme say there is nothing that gives pleasure to a share more than one Jew caring for another Jew and especially when we care for those in need so therefore it says that a person son should dedicate majority of his money for maternity leave Union or at least it should be equivalent the money that he spends on himself for the meal and the money that he spends on Mishler manat food baskets he should spend at least an equal amount for poor people so therefore the proper thing to do is to send limited amount of Purim gift baskets and rather spend more money on maternity leave Union what some people do they even purchase cards that say we purchased a gift card on your behalf and this money for this gift card is going to be sent to a poor family in your merit we purchased and you can buy such gift cards for two dollars five dollars whichever amount you want and instead of sending them a candy with some cookies you send them this card that we gave in your merit sadaqa this way you develop good relationship with them because they see you remember them and for their merit you fulfill the mitzvot but at the same time you're going to be fulfilling a much greater meet sort of mater not leave your name giving money to poor people and they're fine yes yes if you don't know poor people you should go to either the rabbi of your synagogue or go to any synagogue and they will have bins of people and you Shevat and and and organizations that collect for poor people they will say on them but a not leave you need and you just give it to them put money and put the money there and it's going to be distributed on Purim you can give mutton not leave you knew before podium for it to be this trip on podium and not only that you can even pay with a check for a credit card as long as the poor person will know that the money is coming in he will be able to go and buy on credit or take a loan because he knows money is coming in what's considered poor there are different definitions some say that as long as the person is asking he's considered poor because in his mind he's poor if a person feels he doesn't have enough he is poor official definition is that if a person has equivalent of 200 zoos in cash he is not poor and that is 200 zoos is an amount that you can survive on one individual can survive on the minimal food and minimal shelter for one year so it could be anywhere from a thousand dollars a year to five ten thousand eight dollars a year where you you share a room with somebody and you just eat minimum a couple dollars a day so if a person has less than $1,000 cash he's gonna sue the poor yeah yes if a person feels that he needs the money he's considered poor there is another definition of who's consider par and that is anybody who doesn't have a place to live that belongs to him so come to that most people are poor anybody who rents is poor unless he chooses not to buy even though he can afford it so that's why we don't use that definition but anybody who feels that they need they cannot make the ends meet and they need support can ask and we are allowed to support them the last Holika photo for today is working on poutine poutine Miskin is for the laws of working is considered like whole Hamo in the middle days of Pesa and Sukkot where you're not supposed to work and if a person works it says there is no baraja in the money that he makes the only leniency to work on challah moet is for devar hah avid something that will cause a loss for the person he doesn't work and the loss means not loss of a salary because of course if I go to work I get paid if I don't go to work I don't get paid but rather loss means loss of the principle which means you already made an investment and if you don't go and take care of it on podium your investment is going to work be lost so the loss of a principle is considered a financial loss and then you would be allowed to go work and the the reason is because we have many myths what on Purim we have to pray what to the Megillah we have to give gifts to poor we have to give mr. Lachman old food baskets to France and we have to eat a meal you have to celebrate with a family however if a person cannot afford if he needs the money to eat or he's gonna suffer financial loss he's allowed to work but he has to make sure he has time to fulfill other mitzvoth also ideally a person should not do laundry on Purim however if it's close to Shabbat for example this year it's on Thursday and you might not have enough time afterwards to do laundry you would be allowed to do laundry okay very good any questions cooking you're allowed to on podium you can do everything as usual but just officially going out to work preferably you should not Longy if you can avoid it don't do laundry on put him driving is okay turning on electricity is fine it's like Hollywood on Hollywood we're allowed to drive we're allowed to cook we allowed to do everything just don't go to work if a person can take half a day off it's if there's something he'll be able to fulfill his mitzvoth just one point a question was asked by somebody to a rabbi rabbi I'm working and my job I don't have personal days anymore the only time the only way I can take off is if I say that I'm sick can I say that I'm sick even though I'm not sick and this way I'm gonna still get paid and I'm going to be able to afford to celebrate pootie properly so the rabbi said no you're not allowed to lie to say that you're sick to have a day off and get paid for it to celebrate Purim why because the mitzvah of Purim celebrating podium reading Magilla eating Sudha which lost Mohammed Olivia are all rabbinic Meatwad whereas not lying and not stealing from your employer is a Torah Mitzvah so you cannot try to fulfill a rabbinic mitzvot by transgressing a Torah mitzvah total prohibition therefore he said for in your case if you cannot afford it's better to go and work on Purim than to lie to your employer and get paid for it so better - anguish would all have happiness in these two months and forever we should all have our prayers and said and we should all celebrate put him happily with the entire Jewish people amen [Music]