Parshat Yitro: Laws of Shabbat - Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller

[Music] so we were in mid Shabbos we already know about all the things you don't do in order not to make food remember that then we got up to most of the things that we do in order to make cloth you got up to actually making the cloth right remember this then you have dyeing the cloth okay so after you wash it and it's a cloth then you dye it so dyeing is also forbidden on Shabbos and the sense of coloring right if you feel like dropping dead well you know okay so so this includes all forms of using color to change you know to change the coloring that you see coloring painting all of that okay then you would have cut out the pattern and sewed it and now you're finished with cloth making next thing is leather making some of the things made out of leather so very similarly to cloth you begin by trafficking trapping the animal so remember don't trap animals on shovels even if it's your younger brother you know whatever okay if an animal is dangerous for instance okay if you happen to be walking down the street and you see a lion feel free to call the authorities they're allowed to trap it on Shabbos okay yes I mean yes you can because of a lot because of the lions great danger okay yeah so here's the thing the pets it's very tricky with pet it says explicitly the toe should be day of freedom for them also so when you're walking your dog if the dog will walk right besides you out of his own will that's fine but if you have to put a leash on him that's not so fine okay if the leash isn't to control him but because the authorities require a leash okay which sometimes happens that's different okay clear you can't trap animals on Chevis okay you can't force them to come to you like people are very attached to their pet so they'll pick them up and they'll put them on their laps pets don't have to be your entertainment on but they could be themselves they could walk around they can have freedom okay freedom from who right okay clear okay so any care of animals that you do should be done when possible before Shabbos okay clear so fish which don't eat everyday fish eat like once twice a week so feed them not on Shabbos like they should be free of you okay clear okay so that's now if an animal is dangerously you won't find a lion but you had like a B or whatever you can't trap it or kill it what you could do is open the window and shoo it out okay clear but that basically is what you could do you're not talking about one that's truly dangerous and B is annoying but not dangerous in the objective sense unless somebody around has an allergy to bee stings in which case it is dangerous and you should kill it by whatever means okay clear what yeah what's the cockroach in your sick let it just be it's it's like not under your control today if it flows down to the sink which you were washing dishes and now it's in the drain that's okay you don't have to fish it out okay or prevent it from falling in but you can't purposely trap it work on yourself it's like like give it a pray here's the poor cockroach abrade let it be okay if you can get it to like fall onto a piece of paper people do this so it goes on of its own volition to a piece of paper you can pick up the whole piece of paper and put it out on the windowsill so in the low you know what I can't resist tell you a true and funny story I really shouldn't ever ok this didn't happen on Shepard it relates I have a friend who's the kind of person who things happen to ya and just say what I mean so she has a very large porch with potted plants very beautiful like the little jungle very very beautiful so she her kids bought a turtle okay her neighbor a turtle okay her neighbor downstairs who is like at the end of a pregnancy was sitting on her porch just like in an easy-chair relaxing the the turtle did a kamikaze dive like there it is Amna neighbor okay so she doesn't know about this right she's just like living her life and like doesn't know about this the neighbor is into animal you know like is into animal protections so she gets a call from the neighbor a little while later saying don't worry he's okay it's only a broken leg now what should she think be her her kids her husband whatever so she said what happened yeah it's just kind of surprised that the neighbors quickly you know whatever so she says well you know he fell off the porch they tried it yeah but it's alright I took him to the vet that's what she figured it out so the vet actually put the turtle under anesthesia and set its leg okay clear okay so she said you did what you took it how much is this gonna cost me so she said seventy dollars so she said that's ridiculous suitable what would you have done she said me I would have thrown it down the garbage okay that's a different attitude towards animals that some people have different people have different attitude okay clear okay but Travis you're supposed to free your animals to be them and not to be under your jurisdiction okay clear okay next so after the animal is killed for leather making okay you have to skin the animal okay you know that's a skin anything on Shabbos this includes taking your own skin off your body like when you like with your with your hang nails and your cuticles and all of the other disgusting things we do that don't bear talking about okay don't Flay yourself on show that's okay yeah leave your body alone okay yes and this okay whatever okay next next thing is the skin has to be cured in chemicals otherwise it rots so you're not allowed to cure anything on Shabbos so this includes taking anything that's that was once living like even vegetables and making them able to last permanently through what you expose them to like making pickles okay all of the things that people do to preserve things okay clear okay next the next step would be they would smooth the leather by putting oils on it they would smooth the oils into the leather okay clear so you can't do any smoothing of oils into skin no skin cream no what other things that people do with skin okay note well makeup is a problem with coloring anyway okay so with makeup the only leniency severe and fair it does make up hard for any of you not wearing makeup on Chevis you don't look like it would be so hard okay but if you were a fashionista this was a real issue okay water-based makeup that's the same color as your skin more or less you could be lenient with but most most makeup is oil-based and most of it isn't the color of your skin but it looks like you will cope okay next okay clear so okay this next would be after they do that okay so again similarly to with cloth you have cutting the patterns sewing it together that basically is it okay clear okay next thing okay but oh I should go back one step so with creams and stuff you can't squeeze our toothpaste on Shabbos toothpaste is a cream so you could use liquid toothpaste on Shabbos if you want to so the liquid toothpastes they have here is quote I don't and it's good okay liquid means it'll flow out if you turn it upside down unlike Colgate which like makes you wonder what's in it anyway but that's another story I remember when I was a child they had this Colgate commercial on TV in which they showed somebody like walking in a field and then somebody I think this was so like this is so uncool it eclis correct somebody with an assault rifle would shoot them but it wouldn't it wouldn't hit them because they have quote an invisible protective shield and this is what Colgate supposedly does for your teeth okay and it was at that point I began to wonder what's inside this stuff okay not just reading it yeah why is it bulletproof you know so in any case okay next house building okay so you can't build a house or a tent so that means if you're going to camp over Shabbos you have to see that your tent is pitched on Friday way before Shabbos okay clear okay what defines a tent is something with the roof right so an umbrella is a portable tent you understand this so that's why you can't open an umbrella on Shabbos okay so it's potentially yes but there's a decree against doing this because people would forget themselves to open it and close it okay clear okay some baby carriages have these hoods so if you think it's going to rain on Shabbos so you open it partially before Shabbos who could finish opening it on Shabbos okay clear okay what else is in but you can't fix anything that breaks okay so that would include you know doors windows or anything the brakes you have to wait until um after Shabbos to fix it okay are fixing something there's a difference between fixing and a fixing there are things that are made to be taken apart like a table that opens into you know to bigger yeah or folding chairs so that's I considered fixing something that's broken that's just making it work on its own terms okay clear so on a practical of anything that requires tools is probably not going to be good for Shabbos okay clear okay okay questions that arise concerning building okay so we spoke about not making fire Vav cooking remember this okay electricity is considered fire making you tell me why you know how electricity works yeah you you move get the circuits together and they can bus that's how it works okay okay so sometimes there are actual fires that take place on Shabbos so the question is ask that you allowed to put out a fire so the answer is this even if there's a remote danger to life did I say an absolute danger no I said a remote danger even if there's a remote danger to life you put out the fire immediately if there's not even a remote danger to life for instance in Israel well certainly in the older buildings I don't know about the more modern buildings and the older buildings everything is stone the floors are stone the walls are stone everything is stoned so for fire breaks out in the building there's no danger to life there's danger to your furniture but no danger to life so there what you could do where there's absolutely no danger to life potentially is you could put water all around where the fire is presently and then it'll burn itself out but you can't put it out directly you can only put it out directly where there's any danger to life even a remote danger to life okay clear okay next thing that we have to go back to and revisit remember grinding remember that with the wheat okay so all medications are ground this is how they manufacture them so of all the possible things that a person does in which they feel they're in control healing themselves gives a person a very very strong feeling of I'm in control of my body I don't need to think about God I don't need to think okay right so therefore all medications except for the exceptions I'll tell you that was a terrible sense other than the exceptions I'll tell you okay our MOOCs and forbidden on Shabbos which which medications are permitted anything that a person needs because of their endangering themselves if they don't take it even a remote danger even a possible danger even in a crude danger you understand that you understand these three categories so a remote Dage would mean let's say a person has allergies to bees but you know not to the point where they're going to choke they're just going to have more swelling than somebody else does but there is a possibility that swelling will end up being internal swelling and they will choke that's called a remote danger you would take medication in the case of a remote danger you don't have to wait until it's absolute there's also such a thing as call minute of danger if a person doesn't take insulin once they're not going to go into diabetic shock but it Coleman if it's one after another so you could take that what okay bless her bless her okay so you could take that so you could take diabetes medication even though there's no immediate danger possible danger is where everything is fine right now but who knows where things will be in five minutes like a woman who's about to give birth yeah okay so in all those cases you use medication go to the hospital do what you have to do okay clear that's one category danger possible danger Coleman's of danger okay next one down from there is serious pain if a person is in serious pain even though there's absolutely no danger like a stomach ache or toothache okay yeah if they feel ill enough to want to lie down they could should take medication on Chevis okay one down from there you're in no pain whatsoever okay we're very little pain but you're in the habit of taking vitamin D and vitamin C every day skip shabbos take admits a service okay clear okay and last thing I keep missing this thing because I remember more things like carrying which is important I forgot it because it's Israel there's an area of every place so carrying is there are two things that are mentioned explicitly the Torah so what is like all of the things having to do with the Michigan two the two that I mentioned separately are fire making and carrying okay so those have specific severity because harnessing energy gives you a feeling of extreme authority and control and so does having absolute freedom of motion you can go wherever you want gives you this feeling of freedom and not needing God so what kind of carrying or going far is forbidden so the house is considered a private domain you could always carry indoors okay outdoors if it's fenced in maybe a private domain okay that's where Ann Abram comes in so an eruv is like a big fence only it doesn't have to be big just a string but it encloses some place okay yeah okay so you could carry within a closed-in area the laws of why how to make a neighbor fairly complex but you can carry where there's an arrow where there's no air of you can't carry in addition to not being able to carry anything you also can't walk beyond where an eruv could be placed at farthest which is around 2 miles so it's 2 miles from the last house in wherever you're wherever you're staying so for instance if you're living in tell stone have you been to tell stone ever yeah see it's so pretty it's so nice okay so it's it's surrounded by on one side an Arab village called Abu Ghosh and on the other side Forest so suppose you go for a walk in the forest and you walk for like three-quarters of an hour guess what you've gone further than any area of would let you go therefore you are not allowed to go any further okay got this so that's that's called distance clear any questions on any of the laws of shadows yeah new places yes right that's that I don't know so that's something that would be good for you to ask mother Halawa teachers so going back to what all of this is about all of this is about surrender and creating an open space so in the way we live today many of us never have an open space do you understand what I mean when I say this we're busy like doing and and being and having and and more until there's no open space so the underlying premise is you'll never see the picture while you're in the picture you have to step out of the picture to see the picture so this gives you the ability to see the beautiful world God created the glory of being alive okay it's meant to give you that space now to help you fill the space there were also positive mitzvah'd for sharpest things that you do so I'm going to take you now through the positive Mitzvahed so the first is just preparing for Shabbos so getting your clothes clean cooking cleaning up all of that is in order to make this empty space so just the act of preparation is considered a mitzvah so when you leave navei eventually people do I don't know why whatever but when you leave and if eventually did succeed in life and have like and you're rolling in money so you're in a position that you could say Jeeves shabbos 425 this week okay it's still a mitzvah for you to do at least something yourself okay clear so I once was at a at a Shabbat on weekend in Prague and a very wealthy woman went into the kitchen Erev Shabbos to season the challenge for the whole you know okay she was very insistent like the chef had to let her whatever but but that's like you have to do something okay clear okay next okay it's especially like taking a shower bathing before Shabbos your intent should be to like get rid of anything that's limiting that you you know like well of the nonsense from your week okay clear okay next candle-lighting it's a mitzvah to light candles in honor of Shabbos to give you pleasure and to show respect for Shabbos so this has to be done before Shabbos you can't light the candles when the chub is already you also can't light the candles extremely early like let's say you're going somewhere and you won't wait you won't have candles you won't get only light it maximally a little under two hours before Shabbos if you're lighting candles way before Shabbos and you don't want to start observing Shabbos you have to have a mental reservation say I'm not yet accepting Shabbos upon me and the candles have to be big enough that they'll stay lit when it's at when it's already Shabbos so if you light them early in their small candle so they're gone before Shabbos you like did a beautiful act in honor of Friday okay clear could you what if you make a stipulation you can that I'm not yet accepting Shabbos okay whether you should or not to begin with is a different question okay so many authorities maintain that that Shabbos is so huge that you should you should definitely before Chevis okay okay yeah okay good okay so the custom is to light two candles even though you only have to light one so if you're stuck you ran out of candles all there is is one left don't panic one is okay but the custom is to light too okay clear if you forget to light candles out of negligence not because you didn't know or some avoidable for the circumstance arose but out of negligence and you're suppose so continually light an extra candle okay clear okay got it next okay Cabela's shop all the time yeah yeah yeah it's rare to not light out of negligence but but if you do ya know cuz people oftentimes just like a lot of people just like a lot of candles anyway for different family members or for people of their family who aren't lighting on their own behalf because they don't know you know it's like not unusual to have people light all sorts of numbers of candles yeah yeah yeah people do this yeah yeah so here's that here's how it goes with a light okay so this works with incandescent lights not with fluorescent lights in terms of what fire making is okay so if you're stuck and there are no candles so what you could do is you turn off the light so it's okay then you turn it on and say the Braja you could do that in situations like this this is especially relevant in hospitals where they don't let you bring in candles outside of Israel look it makes what you wonder this yeah they don't care about burning down the hope whatever okay okay so so that's what you could do and it's a reasonable second choice where should you lied so ideally you light where you eat if that doesn't work out for whatever reason you could light where you sleep okay light in where you neither eat nor sleep is tricky so you should try to create situations where it's possible to light either where you eat or where you sleep okay got it no you don't need to do both some people will have the custom of doing both and I want you to be always also if light there were all sorts of life situations that make lighting candles awkward like in the hospital in some hotels where if you light candles the the smoke alarm goes off and whatever so you could light in your hotel room okay but by the method I told you first turn it off then turn it on and since it's considered best to light where you eat you could do that and then go and light also where you eat but you would only say the braava and the one in your room okay clear so you do have that as an option okay clear right that's tricky and nobody sees the candles in the dining hall no no you even if so even if there's a light on but are there people in the dining room will see the candles or does everybody go out oh that's good enough okay okay clear okay thank you is there anything that got left oh so kiddush okay so it's it's a mitzvah it's written into the Torah to sanctify Shabbos and you do this by making kiddush so you say the kiddush that it says in The Sitter that you know you should say it on wine or grape juice if you're if you're the one making Kadish the best is to drink most of the cup if you're not going to do that you have to drink enough to sort of fill one cheek so it's like a significant amount of wine or grape juice the other people don't have to drink only if they want to okay clear okay if you don't have wine or grape juice or if you can't drink wine or grape juice okay you could make kiddush anjala okay got this if you don't have color which could happen you know like life is big you're on the plane got into the airport it was Shabbos already okay yeah so you could use any kind of bread even sliced bread if you don't have any other kind of bread you could use sliced bread okay clear okay if you don't even have sliced bread you could use cake okay but this is only if you don't have it not if you prefer you understand what I'm saying okay got it okay so what skittish about it's about defying food it's saying that even though mostly the reasonably EDA's necessity or the pleasure or to comfort ourselves none of which is particularly holy or uplifting on Shabbos you're using the food as a way of expressing this that it's a gift and you're and you're using the gift and rejoicing in the gift so the saying Kaddish sanctifies the gift if possible you should have two colors okay and they should be whole and when you say Kaddish you should cover them so the reason for covering the bread is usually bread comes first in the order of breakfast before wine but because of kiddush you'd say the breath on the wine first so the pour bread feels like odd-man-out and embarrassed and like you know why am I being ignored and rejected so so you cover it so this is meant also to teach you how far you have to go in order not to embarrass anyone but another reason for the tradition of covering the hollows is because the man which fell in the desert was always covered with this sort of layer of dough so it commemorates the Mun okay so the reason you're using two colors is because the man would fall double on Friday for the sake of Sabbath so the game this recalls the man and how all of our sustenance ultimately comes from God we do the wine first because it's through the wine that we bring in the sanctification of service so the reason why we use wine that it was just probably a real question but I didn't catch it yeah is because unlike other other liquids wine brings out your secret self and in fact the kamati of the word wine you and your nun is the same as the word so it's I'm affirm doubted which spells out secret okay clear so this is wine this is why wine is the most special kind of thing that you could use for kiddush okay so then when you wash and you say the broccoli on the bread you're supposed to dip the bread in salt reason for this is that unlike an ordinary meal when you eat on Shabbos is considered to have almost the sanctity of offering sacrifices in the temple and all of the sacrifices had to have salt sprinkled on them and the reason for that is salt doesn't spoil like you can keep salt for years and years and years so the idea is that when you bring God into the picture of eating like in a sacrifice something eternal is taking place when you just like go to a pizzeria and have pizza it's you know it's gone it's forgotten okay clear next year I know this is hard for you but like what don't we do for God who loves us eat well on Shabbos I know like you know you really would prefer to have kanawa but okay but force yourself to have like four kinds of salad at least you know with shame shame I am and you get a perfectly done chicken maybe more than one kinds and let you know whatever okay clear it's hard but what don't we do yeah okay clear so but when you enjoy the food on sharpest it's actually a mitzvah okay clear seeing me be saying wait a minute I don't want to be self-deceptive the reason why I'm eating this mousse is because I like mousse but you don't normally eat this kind of a meal on an ordinary Wednesday night right wine and falen well so it is for the sake of Shabbos so it all gets into the Mitzvah okay clear okay so so that's the first meal now we're up to the next day other things we do look of each other oh you also have to dress well for Shabbat which is all very also very hard we would all prefer to wear uniforms or something but never on Shabbos like you get to go to the good stores and buy something that's out of your price whatever but again what don't we do for God okay ideally I mean this depends on your finances but ideally should everything's like specific for Shabbos like you know Shabbos pajamas Shabbos under your like everything like yeah I can't see everything good everything shoes code everything but it depends on your finances obviously okay clear but you do whatever you can that direction to have clothes that look shop like look like Shabbos and Ark especially put aside for Shabbos okay clear okay next thing okay it's now the morning so there's kiddush again in the morning okay and the morning is considered to be like the most intense part of Shabbos even though people often feel it at night because there's a break between the weekday and Shabbos but mourning is considered to be the most intense part of Shabbos therefore if you're going to have something really special to eat save it for the morning okay clear so if you have only one of those absolutely amazing Napoleon's that they sell in 'angels don't ask why I know okay so say fat for the morning okay clear okay so you say Kaddish again in the morning okay ensure on Shabbos they read the parsha so it's good for you to go to shul t here the Torah read but you don't have any obligation to do so men do this coming week they're going to be reading the Ten Commandments because as you know it's the parsha of the Ten Commandments so getting the old body out of bed so you could hear the Ten Commandments once a year isn't a bad idea okay clear okay next again this is hard but like what don't we do you're supposed to rest on Shabbos so like having a nap okay this is oh this is actually a mitzvah which I know is so hard to observe okay you're telling yourself really I should review all of my studies but no okay okay clear okay third meal so the third meal should be after min-cut I'm okay and it doesn't have to be as serious a meal as the other meals but it is a mitzvah to eat a third meal in the winter when especially if you dive in late so your first meal is fairly late and you extend it so you may not feel like having another meal so it's meant to give you pleasure it's not meant to give you one pain so if so if it's too hard for you to have like a meal meal at least have a piece of bread if even that's too much for you have a piece of cake if even that's too much do you have anything that's cooked like applesauce if even that's too much for you have whatever isn't too much for you okay clear if you really can't eat anything at all like if there's an opinion if you just say differ eat all right that's as good as a meal cuz that was the level of every Shimon bar Yohai which is of course our level as well that he had as much pleasure in different era as we would have in food uh-huh okay clear okay last thing is hamdullah so it's a mitzvah to let Shabbos eggs if you will have Dulla the same way just to make kiddush on Shabbos okay so I'm della yeah wants to say something you know okay so how double can be said by a woman or a man however the custom is for men to make Abdullah okay clear but if there's no man around and for so many of you that's it's a chronic problem okay you can make you can make Abdullah yourself okay this is clear yeah girls could definitely make a dish it's less so it's it's much less of a problem for girls to make a dish than have Dulla okay clear okay so the hub devil involves a candle and wine and fragrance so these things all have to do with how when sharpest is over and you're going back to the real world you have to thank God for giving you the possibilities of harnessing energy which is the flame and you have to say goodbye to the special soul of Shabbos which is you take the fragrance so this is not to be too pained by that and and the wine itself is again the parallel to the kiddush okay clear okay any Shabbos questions good so now we only have five more Commandments to go in two minutes okay next one don't murder the halacha definition of murder is killing anybody who is of no threat to you it doesn't matter if you like the person or don't judge them as a good person or not they're enjoying life whether or not enjoy life their productive or not okay clear so there's no difference in Halawa between killing a 99 year old person who's on life support - killing a 20 year old who's about to win the Olympics okay clear okay so the reason for this is as long as the soul is in the body life has purpose life is a gift okay so me so so I said murder is killing someone who's of what no threat to you okay clear you're allowed to kill anyone who's a threat to you this includes terrorists war the burglar who's in your basement who you think might be armed whomever I don't know who normally threatens your life but whoever normally threatens your life you're allowed to kill them and in fact if you're in a life situation where someone is going to be killed it's considered since your ultimate responsibilities to yourself you kill the other person and not to be KITT in order not to be killed that's what's proper okay clear okay got it okay humiliating somewhat is considered to be almost as severe not as severe but almost a severe is murdering them because it makes them feel irrelevant and it makes them think that the soul that they have somehow isn't real okay next don't commit adultery which I hope I didn't ruin anybody's evening plans okay clear so adultery lien somewhat against men a man is considered to be an adulterer and deserving of the death penalty okay if if he's single or married a single man could be considered an adulterer if he has an affair with a married woman but only a married woman could be considered an adulteress a single woman would never be executed for adultery but potentially a single man could be executed for adultery okay clear the reason why adultery is considered to be such a grave sin is the people who are married and committed to each other really become one person so it's very much akin to murder okay clear the offshoots of adultery include all of the forbidden relationships that you're familiar with in sexual relationships all of the forbidden relationships okay clear next one don't kidnap okay so the halawet definition of kidnapping is robbing someone of their freedom of movement for reasons of your gain so today when divorce proceedings take place well oftentimes custody is not oftentimes but sometimes one parent gets exclusive custody then the other parent sometimes kidnaps the child or the children so in Halawa although that's forbidden it's not considered an actual kidnapping because it's not for reasons of gain okay it's just an ordinary act that's forbidden okay clear all sorts of other theft is also forbidden but the most severe form of theft is when you actually steal the person's freedom by kidnapping them but all other kinds of theft that you're familiar with like financial theft all of that it's all forbidden next one okay the next one is bearing false witness in court so even though lying in a general sense is a bad idea and it's forbidden elsewhere in Torah in court it's considered to be extremely bad because bearing false testimony corrupts the justice system you're from South America right who's from South America you are is the justice system they're corrupt very so the result of that anybody from Russia okay it's corrupt there too right okay when the justice system is corrupt then people take the law into their own hands and you have social chaos and anarchy and all of the all of the other bad stuff okay clear so even if you don't like the system you can't lie in court because any system is better than social chaos and Anarchy that makes sense okay clear okay and the last one the last one is not envying anybody's marriage partner home possessions anything that belongs to someone else so this means actually making some attempt to get what somebody else has not just in your mind you think oh I wish my husband was no you have to do something have to act on it so the reason why this is considered so serious is because it's God's providence that gave you your life and all the things to the company your life so because of this this is considered by many of the commentators the most important of the of the commandments because as you accept them what you have on what you are is what you're supposed to be and what you're supposed to have all of the other ones fall into place okay clear so that's how you do five commandments in two minutes okay clear toe [Music] you [Applause]