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The Everyday Judaism Podcast (formerly Living Jewishly Podcast) is dedicated to learning and understanding the laws and basic how-to of daily Jewish living. Presented by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe in a simple and concise manner, easy for anyone to understand and connect.
This Podcast Series is Generously Underwritten by Marshall & Doreen Lerner.
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Ask Away series on the Everyday Judaism podcast. To have your questions answered on future episodes, please email askaway at torchweb.org. Now ask away.
All right, welcome back my dear friends to Ask Away number 32. It is so wonderful to be here with all y'all this beautiful Sunday morning. I look forward to learning much together. But before we begin, my dear friend Alex sent us a question at askaway at torchweb.org.
My dear friends, viewers, listeners, if you have any questions you'd like us to address in a further episode, please do so. Just like, be like Alex. Ask questions. Ask away at torchweb.org. I look forward to addressing your questions on future episodes. Alex asks as follows, Hi Rabbi, you mentioned that grandparents don't have a say in their grandchildren's names, but I thought we're supposed to obey parents unless it goes against the Torah. Where's the line between honoring parents and making our own decisions like with naming
our children? Is it pick and choose or should we try to honor all of their wishes? Okay, great question, Alex. That is a fabulous question. Okay, so the halacha is pretty clear that, you know, we need to honor our parents. We just read it in the Torah portion this week. Of the Big Ten, honor thy father and mother, right? Honor your father and mother. Why is it so important? We know that the Torah gives us a special obligation to recognize that our parents are
just like God in the creation of man. There is the father, there is the mother, and there is God. The father and the mother, the Talmud explains, give and contribute different aspects to the child. The eyes, the ears, the nose, the mouth, the skin, the sinews, all of that comes from either the father or the mother. The Talmud goes into great detail into which parts come from which of the parents. But there is a battery pack that only God gives and that's the soul. That is God.
They create the vessel and God gives the infusion of spirituality, of really the battery pack that keeps our bodies going. What do we thank Hashem for every single morning? Thank you for giving me my soul. Thank you Hashem for restoring my soul within me. So this is essential. It's critical that we recognize every single day that Hashem and our parents are key in our life. However, there is a limit to what your parents can demand you do.
The first limit that the Talmud is very, very clear about is anything that the parents say that goes against the will of Hashem. Meaning, if the two go against God, sorry, God is the force behind everything and we are not allowed, even if it means disobeying our parents, we are not allowed to go against the will of Hashem. Now, with regard to honoring our parents and baby naming, it's not a sin. Parents are not asking you to go against Hashem, they're just saying, this is our desire that
you name your child such and such. I still don't feel, I'm trying to, I vaguely remember a Talmud discussion about something which was honoring the parents but not going against God. Your parents can't dictate to you certain things like what you should eat and how you should eat. Oh, it's going to go against the parents. The parents, yes, it may be going against the parents' wishes, but the parents don't have a right to insert themselves there.
That means if the parents decide that they want their child to go and become a doctor but the child doesn't want to become a doctor, not becoming a doctor would be a lack of honor to the parents. They don't have a right to insert themselves into that. So just because they inserted themselves doesn't mean that it is a breach of honor by not listening to them. It means you have to know what the category of honor is when it involves them.
Now they're going to say, well, if you don't name your child after my parents or whatever, then that's a disgrace and whatever. They're inserting themselves in a place that's not their place. It's not their place. Okay? That's, okay. I want to bring more background to it. I will, without promise, get back to you, Alex, with more detail. But just as a general principle, just because they're our parents doesn't mean they have
the right to insert themselves in every area of our lives and take away our – so then you can say that a child will never have free will. Parents want us to only eat dairy. So now what are you going to do? My parents said so. Well, sorry. They don't have that right to just insert themselves everywhere, okay? Particularly now when one is married and they have a spouse, they have also responsibilities to their parents.
So now it's going to be a tug of war and that's not either appropriate. So I don't think it's their area to insert themselves there to begin with. But we're going to move on to the next question. And Alex, I will bleed nether, without promise, I will get back to you with your question. And now we're going to turn the floor to those of you sitting here in the room. I want to hear your questions. When we discussed Sermon 42, talking about the blessings for the meal, it's pretty
clear when the meal starts, but how do you really determine when it ends? Okay. That's a great question. So when a meal begins, we know we recite the Hamotzi. A meal should end when we recite the Grace After Meals. And when should we do that? When we're no longer eating. Everyone is satisfied. Everyone's sitting back and enjoying. Now again, you can go on conversation, but don't forget that the meal ends with the Grace After Meals. Younger children is different.
I don't believe that a dinner table should be a prison for our children. This is on the parenting side. I don't believe that if you make your Shabbos dinner a prison, they're not going to want to be there. Make it enjoyable. And my children, when they get up from the table and they want to go play, no problem. I call them all back for the dinner, for the Birkas Hamazon, for the Grace After Meals. We're all benching, and that's when they all come back to the table.
And they'll always come back for dessert anyway. They'll always come back. That's always a way to get them back. But the idea is like this. As the head of the table, okay, and this is something that I've seen my father, I never get up from the table without somebody else staying there at the table. Someone's always got to be at the table. So for example, if I'm going to go into the kitchen and serve the next course, I will
make sure that someone is still seated at the table. You don't leave the table beer. Why? First, it's not honor to the table. It's a Shabbos table. You don't leave the table beer. But there's another thing. You may forget to bench. You may forget the Grace After Meals because now that we're here, you know, why don't we just go for a walk? Why don't we just sit by the couch and drink our tea?
Well, you're going to forget to go back to the table to recite the Grace After Meals. And therefore, you don't get up from the table till you finish the meal. And then you finish the meal by reciting the Grace After Meals, the Birkat Hamazon, and then and only then you can leave the table. Okay? So again, regarding children, particularly younger children, they shouldn't get up from the table. You know, I try to – not that they shouldn't get up from the table.
They shouldn't be forced to stay at the table. If they're not interested, they want to go play with their toys. Let them go play with their toys. Let them go enjoy. That's just as a side note. If you force them – anything you force anybody to do, they won't want to do. Okay? I'll give you – you want to try this? Okay. If I tell – I say, Anna, drink your drink now. Drink it, right?
She'll be like, eh, I'm not in the mood right now. I'm going to wait. I'm going to wait. Why? Because people like to be independent and people like to – that's why freedom is such a great gift that Hashem has given us. Hashem has given us freedom to decide and to choose and to make our own mind on when we eat and when we drink. That's a very, very important thing. All right? I hope I answered your question. Yes, you have. Okay.
Well, that's all very helpful for meals, but we live in this modern society where we have a snack at 10 and a snack at 4 and a snack before going to bed. What's the rules on blessings before and blessings after? Okay. That's a very good question. So before and after eating any snack, one should recite a blessing before and after unless it's part of a meal, right? You take a little snack. You have a little popcorn. May recite a blessing before, recite a blessing after.
You have a little granola bar, have a – recite a blessing before, recite a blessing after, and it's important. Before – sometimes people just like get back to work, okay, and they have their little snack next to them and they're munching it. When it's done, they just throw it out and just continue to work. You got to remember to recite a grace after meals when you're done. Okay. Now, it's not the same as berkat hamazon.
It's a different after blessing, but one should nevertheless ensure that they recite that after blessing. Just as a health thing, many, many doctors recommend not to snack during the day, right? Keep it within the meals. Then you'll have other doctors who will say, no, no, no, have like seven small meals throughout the day. You got to speak to your own medical professional. Just wanted to make everyone alert that there are differing opinions on how – the healthiest way for one to eat throughout the day.
For me personally, I like to do the intermittent fasting of 18 and 6, and sometimes I do 24, and sometimes I do 22, and sometimes I've fasted more than 24 hours many times just because. Like, why not? I don't need to eat. If I'm not hungry, I'm not going to eat. But everyone needs to know their abilities of what they can do, and there are some people who do 16, 8, 18, 6, whatever, all the different – and everyone has to know how it – and
if it benefits them. But yes, I hope that answers your question. Little snacks, you still recite a blessing before and recite a blessing after eating them. This is a statement. You know, shout out to Alex, don't let anybody take your peace, nobody. Okay. Alex, you hear that? Alex, you hear that? Don't let anybody take your peace, nobody. Question. Now, I have a few – I might hit you with like a Hail Mary, if you will. Go for it. It's football season.
It is football season. One more day. So, I think she was Jewish, too. Why doesn't it talk about Olam Haba? Oh, that's an excellent question. Why doesn't it talk about Olam Haba? So if you look throughout the Torah, there is no explicit statement in the entire Torah that talks about the world to come. However, there are many, many, many hints to it. But I want to talk about the – and we can get into it.
I can bring you 20 different sources of the verses in the Torah that relate to an afterlife, like Abraham saying he's going to lay with his ancestors, or Jacob, I want to lay with my ancestors. What's going on there? Where are they? What's going on there? Our sages talk about how important it is for us to recognize that there is a world to come. But there is also a very, very specific reason why it's not mentioned in the Torah. Two reasons let's talk about.
Number one is that we have something called free will. And the minute you talk about the world to come openly in the Torah, your free will is shot. It's gone. Why is it gone? Because now you have no choice. You have to do good if you want the world to come. So it makes a complete imbalance in your free will if there would be an open mention of the world to come. That's point number one.
Point number two, and that cannot be undervalued, the gift of it not being mentioned in the Torah. Okay, but there's another piece here, and that is, does a child need a guarantee from his father that loves him dearly? That when he does the right thing, that his dad will reward him? A child does not need his father to guarantee him that, because if my father loves me, you know, there's a statement that Rabbi Noah Weinberg would tell his children every night when he put them to sleep.
He said, Kinderlach, my children, I love you so much you can't even imagine. But you know who loves you even more than me? Hashem. Hashem loves you more than any human being can possibly imagine the love for another human being. That's how much Hashem loves us. Hashem loves us, and because He loves us so much, He doesn't need to write, and I guarantee you a great reward for doing the right thing. Doesn't need to.
There's an absolute guarantee that every single thing that we wish, which is closeness to Hashem, is going to be rewarded. We're going to be rewarded that world to come, that gift for all the unbelievable things that we've done. And sometimes we don't realize how many great things we've done in our lifetime. Hashem counts them all. Even the things you did unintentionally. Even the things you did intentionally but nobody else recognized. Nobody else noticed it. Nobody else took the time to appreciate. Hashem does.
You know, the first job I had as a volunteer for a nonprofit was in the former Soviet Union. I was in Ukraine, and this is back in 1996, and I was 18 years old, and I was volunteering for a summer camp, and my mentor at the time said something really remarkable. He says, you know, in our prayer, every Shabbos, we say a blessing right before Mossof. And whoever faithfully serves the community, the Almighty will repay them, and He will
remove from them all harm, and He will remove from them all sickness. And my mentor asked me, he says, I don't understand. Why is God the one who has to repay you? Can't the community recognize what you do? Can't those who benefit from your work, can't they acknowledge you? He said to me, and it stayed with me, you see now almost 30 years later, he said, because nobody knows how much hard work you put in except for God. Nobody knows.
We were sitting there 3, 4, 5 in the morning. We have to be up at 7, and we're preparing for the next day, and we're strategizing, and we're planning, and we're working, and we're, you know, doing so much that nobody will ever know. You know who does know? The Almighty. He knows how much hard work you put in. And this is the guarantee, when you're faithfully involved in the community's work, nobody appreciates. Nobody appreciates how much hard work that is.
Nobody knows the time that you volunteered, that you gave up on things, and you gave up on this, and you canceled things, and you canceled that just so that you can be there for someone else. Like, oh, it's so nice that you came. Do you know what I did to come here? You're right. Nobody appreciates it. Only Hashem knows that. And for that reward, you will be repaid. Okay? So, a long answer to your question is, yes, there is a guarantee.
It's hinted to many, many times in the Torah. If you'd like, I could put together a list of all of the times that the Torah hints. If you want blineder, next week, ask the question again, and in Ask Away number 33, I will, God willing, address this question again. With all the sources, I actually put them together once for a class, but I don't have them handy, so I will make sure to get them again for you. Okay? Next question. All right, David, go for it.
Again, to our friends online, while the microphone is being passed along, I want to remind you that you can be part of our classes and our questions in the Ask Away series by sending your question to askawayattorchweb.org. Askawayattorchweb.org. And now, we're going to hear from David. David, go for it. Rabbi, question about today and having a shot and liquor. So, I remember in the past, you had mentioned that with wine, there's great Israeli wines and no need to drink any wine besides Israeli wine.
That's just because I'm a Zionist. That's okay. There are plenty of other good wines. I'm sure. Like you said, there's a lot of great Israeli wines. But when I lived in Israel, I don't really remember any Israeli liquor too much. Maybe Arak. That's about the only thing I can think of that was like an Israeli liquor. Today, maybe times have changed, and maybe in Israel, there's a lot of liquors made, but personally, I'm not familiar with any Israeli tequila, vodka too much, rum, scotch
whiskey, or anything like that. Do those things need to be kosher? Because I mean, does liquor need to be kosher the same as food? That's an excellent question. Okay. So, anything that, so, I'll just, let me give you an overall, okay? Whiskey does not need to have a special certification to be kosher because what's put in there is mostly regulated by the government, and they can't put in extra things that are not part
of the beverage, except there is a big disagreement regarding sherry cask scotches and whiskeys. Sherry cask is a cask that previously had wine in it, and those remnants of wine may be from non-kosher wine, and that's influencing the scotch. So that, ask your local rabbi. Additionally, liquors, liquors do need to be kosher. And the reason they do is because of all of the flavorings that they put in there. Do you know that there is a red dye that comes from a beetle? Okay, we mentioned this previously.
There's a red dye that comes from a beetle. That's not kosher, right? So if they just add a little bit of that beetle juice in there to make the color look right for you on the shelf, it's not kosher. So therefore, we ensure that all liquors are kosher. Now, it's very interesting that there are many liquors that are not kosher all around the world, but you could get them kosher in Israel. And the reason, the reason for that is because the rabbi will go out.
For example, one of my family's favorites is the Jack Daniel's Fire, which is, it's like a cinnamon-flavored whiskey. It's delicious, but there is no certification on the United States market. There is a certification on the one that's sold in Israel. Same Jack Daniel's Fire. The same exact Jack Daniel's Fire will have a kosher certification. Now, what I assume, now I don't know why this is the case, but what I assume is that the
rabbi flew down to Tennessee, and they did a special run, and that special run ensures that the ingredients that are being put in are all kosher. And therefore, that batch that gets done is shipped to Israel with that certification. Now, it could be that it's the same run as the ones that are being sold here in America. I don't know. I don't know. And therefore, I do know someone who knew that I liked that and bought it for me, but it was without the certification.
I couldn't drink it, so I have a bottle of Jack Daniel's Fire that I can't drink until I verify that it is kosher. But now, there's other drinks, there's other drinks that a person needs to know, like vodka. There are flavored vodkas. We had an absolute vodka that was absolutely remarkably delicious, which was called Absolute Texas. It was kosher certified because the flavors they put in were ensured that they were kosher. If they do not have a kosher symbol, you cannot drink it because the assumption is
that the flavorings they're putting in are not kosher. That's flavored. Straight vodka is generally always okay. Straight bourbon, no problem. Straight scotch, no problem. Once you start adding something to it and changing, like, you know, even the Crown Royal, they have the Crown Royal Apple, they have the Crown Royal Honey, they have the Crown Royal, all these different things. The extra flavoring you need to ensure has a certification. So if it does not have a certification, I would recommend that you stay away from it.
But generally, the regular Crown Royal, no problem. So most of the brands, if it's not flavored, you're okay. Correct. Correct. Unless you know that, okay, and that, you can look, by the way, just as a, out there, there is a remarkable app by the CRC, which is the Chicago Rabbinic Council, that on that app, they have a list of all of the liquors, all of the scotches, all of the bourbons,
all of the brandies, all of the tequilas, and all of the, you name it, of all of those that are recommended and not recommended. Not recommended doesn't mean it's not kosher. It's just that they don't know that it's kosher, and therefore, they can't recommend it. So that's that. So I hope that I'm going to get the microphone back to you in a few minutes. So that's the answer to that question. Now, there is recently, I'm talking about the last decade, a surge of Israeli liquors,
okay, that are phenomenal. In fact, one of them is made by Binamina. They have over there amaretto liquor, and they have chocolate liquor. Chocolate liquor won the award for being one of the top liquors in, I guess, in Paris in one of those competitions. Phenomenal. Phenomenal. Can you find that stuff here? Yes, you can find that stuff here, either in Total Wine, but you got to be careful. By the way, Total Wine, I love the place.
They sometimes have a section of kosher wines and have some non-kosher wines in there. Got to be careful. You got to always check. If you're looking for kosher wine, you got to ensure that it's actually kosher. Not because it's in the section that Total Wine decided is the kosher section, but because it actually has a certification of being kosher. So you got to double check that. I saw that a number of times where they were like, these are the Israeli wines, kosher,
it's like the kosher section, and non-kosher wines are there. So you got to be careful about that. Same thing with the liquors, always ensure. Now when I go, I don't go that frequently. I'm not such a big drinker. I love wine, but I don't like scotch and liquor. I'm not a big fan of that, but just I'm not anymore. I used to enjoy it, but I don't enjoy it. I prefer to stick to wine. But I'll be walking around with that app, with that CRC app.
I think also Starkey has an app, maybe HuffK has an app that also lists all the different liquors that are kosher or non-kosher. I recommend that before you buy any type of beverage like that, that you check to see that it is actually kosher. Okay? It's a very important, very good question. Again, but now you know the reason why it may or may not be kosher. It's not because there's any issue with scotch. No, there's no issue with scotch being kosher.
It is if they do add extra things into it that render them non-kosher. Okay? And sometimes it's food coloring that could be non-kosher from a non-kosher source, as the example that we've given. All right? I'm going to check the app. Oh, so beer is the same thing. Beers generally speaking are all kosher, right? Beers generally are all kosher. Once they start having the flavoring, maple flavor, and this flavor, and that flavor,
you have to ensure that they are indeed certified kosher, because those flavorings are generally not. Okay, go for it. Okay, these are follow-up questions on that. Does the rule of 64 apply? And what if you know that the- What is the rule of 64? You know, if the percentage of the non-kosher stuff is 60, is less than 61, then it's still okay? No, no, that doesn't work for, like, I can't stick a little pork flavoring in my soup because it's less than a 60th, okay?
You can't do that. And unfortunately, there are those who say, well, that's fine. Because it's less than a 60th. That doesn't work like that. It doesn't, you can't just say, well, it's less than a 60th, I can eat it. What if what they're putting in there is also kosher? Like maple syrup, or like, let's say they're only putting in banana flavoring. You know, bananas are all kosher, right? Right, but how do they make that flavoring?
Is it made out of real bananas, or is it made out of artificial ingredients? Artificial flavoring. Artificial flavoring. That they took from a pig, right? That they took from something else, and they, yeah, and they manipulate it into a banana flavor because it'll last longer on the shelf, or whatever. You know, there are many reasons why companies do certain things. Now, there are kosher agencies that are dealing only with ingredients for flavorings.
So they certify that the process in which it was made out in South Texas, and now being shipped to Tennessee for the flavoring of the bourbon, or, you know, is actually verified kosher. But you see, there's a process to this. It's not such a simple thing, especially now that you can buy flavorings for anything. You can have Coke that tastes like ketchup, right? And vice versa. That's like, you know, so you got to be very, very careful. You got to be careful with these things.
And that's why we're very grateful to have kosher agencies that overlook these things meticulously to ensure that it is kosher, and make sure that the entire process is done under their certification, and they're guaranteeing that the drink that you drink is indeed kosher. Right? Thank you. Great question. Rabbi Shkoyach, thank you for your lecture. It's always good to hear from you, and it's a lot of information to drink in. No pun intended. Are you sure? I'm sure. He's always got the pun.
He's always got the pun. Rabbi, I have just two questions for you on this beautiful Sunday. Number one, when it comes to keeping kosher, specifically a kosher home, I have kosher silverware and kosher dishes, which have been, you know, cleaned in the mikveh years ago. And, you know, to this day I separate them in meat and dairy dishes, you know, meat and dairy drawers and shelves respectively, right? Beautiful. And all my food, baruch Hashem, comes from the kosher section at HEB. So my question for you, Rabbi...
For those of you who are not from Texas, HEB is the place. Okay. It's just, you have to... Kosher. It is. They have a lot of kosher food there as well in most kosher, in most Jewish communities. You know, in San Antonio they have a big kosher section. In HEB in Austin they have a big kosher section. In Dallas they have a big kosher section. I don't know what they have in South Texas.
Look, most products anyway out there have, if you look carefully, will have a kosher certification. But go, continue. HEB is the eighth wonder of the world. Yeah. My question for you, Rabbi, is if one without intention were to accidentally put both the meat and dairy dishes and silverware into the dishwasher, do I then need to buy new silverware or new dishes? Do I need to go back to the mikveh to get them re-kosherized?
Do I need to take out my entire dishwasher and put that in the mikveh? How does one go about going through that situation? That's a very, very good question. Now, let me explain to you the difficulty with dishwashers. Okay? The difficulty with dishwashers is that, especially if you have the milk and meat in one dishwasher, is that first is that dishwasher absorbs, usually there's stainless steel inside, and you put your meat dishes in there, your meat cutlery in there, and now the whole steam,
the heat of all of the dishwasher's operations is now absorbing the meat. Then you put your dairy stuff in there, and you have this problem of the meat-absorbed walls and parts of the dishwasher that are now giving over flavor to the dairy dishes that are in there. That is the problem. And that is the main problem. And particularly because heat is the only thing that transfers flavor. Heat transfers flavor. Coal does not.
So if you take a cold piece of meat and put it on a dairy plate, now don't shoot me people online, okay? But that wouldn't be a problem because there's no transfer of flavor. There's a famous story that's told about Rab Moshe Feinstein. He was sitting with his students, and while he was sitting with his students, a woman came in with a question about her chicken. Now, what happens with chicken? We know that an animal needs to be kosher, kosher kind of animal, but it also needs to
be slaughtered in a kosher way. But also, after the chicken is slaughtered, you need to verify that this animal didn't have broken limbs before it was slaughtered because that would render it unkosher. It may be a kosher type of animal, but this individual one had a broken leg, and now it's not kosher. So now she's cleaning her chicken, preparing it for Shabbos, and she sees there's a broken bone there. Uh-oh. Uh-oh.
She brings it to the rabbi, and the rabbi will be able to discern, knowing the laws properly, whether or not this bone was broken before or after, et cetera, et cetera. So she brings the chicken to Rabbi Feinstein. So Rabbi Feinstein asks one of his students to run to the kitchen and to bring him a knife. Sure enough, the student brought a dairy knife to Rabbi Feinstein. Now, Rabbi Feinstein knew that, and he used the knife, checked the chicken, you know,
and he said to the woman that it was fine. And then the question came up, like, but it was a dairy knife. He said, yeah, but it's cold, and cold doesn't transfer. You understand? Cold does not transfer. So they say that the woman threw out the chicken. She says, what does Rabbi Moshe Feinstein know about kosher, right? But the, you know, clearly he doesn't know what he's talking about. But, you know, the truth is that halacha is a lot, people are a lot more stringent than
halacha requires. There are people who have two separate sets of refrigerators. Not necessary. Separate sets of everything. Not necessary. It is customary for us to have dairy dishes, meat dishes so that they don't get confused, dairy cutlery, and meat cutlery so that they don't get confused. But there is no obligation for you to have separate refrigerators and separate everythings for them. We also typically, because you could have hot, we have separate sinks for meat and dairy as well.
But, again, it used to be that there was no such luxury. Homes didn't have multiple sinks. And yet they kept kosher perfectly. Maybe even better than this generation. So, again, you have to know what you're doing. And if you know what you're doing, then, and this is why we're learning these laws in the Ketzeshochan Aruch, so that we go through the laws of meat and milk and all of these so that we gain a greater grasp of what is right and what is wrong.
Now, regarding the dishwasher, we can speak about each specific dishwasher because there are those that can be koshered, there are those that cannot be koshered. Also, there are plastic grates or there are metal grates, the stuff that you put the dishes into, this is all questions of each individual specific manufacturer and specific product. But, generally speaking, we try to keep these things separate. In my home, we have separate meat and power of dishwashers. We do not have a dairy dishwasher. We're simple people like that.
Most homes who do have try to keep the dishwasher separate as well. It's important to do so. Now, we can get into the technicalities of it, but it's going to be very confusing to our online audience and to those in the room, maybe, of exactly how much time has gone by from when the food was placed hot on the dish to when it was put into the dishwasher. I don't want to get into that now, but there's more to discuss in this.
It's an excellent question, but you said you had two. Thank you. My second and last question is a little different. Not last, the last for today. Last for today. Okay. We all know about the Ten Commandments. Now, if you, Rabbi Wolbe, were to go back to Mount Sinai and were standing next to Moses, and you could somehow ask Hashem to inscribe an 11th commandment onto those sapphire tablets, what, in your rabbinic opinion, in today's day and age, knowing how the world is and
how Judaism is, what, in your opinion, would be worthy of that 11th commandment? That's an excellent question. Oh, my goodness. David, did you hear that question? Did you hear that question? Oh, my goodness. Are you on the spot now? Yeah. Okay. So, I will tell you. I will tell you. So, it's a very, very good question. A very good question. Like, I always tell my children, like, if there was a mitzvah that I can change, which one would it be?
Like, what would that mitzvah be? What would it look like? So, first is, we don't need to change anything because it's Hashem's Torah, and Hashem is perfect, and His Torah is perfect. But if I was able to get my way, this is what I would do, okay? We know, I'm going to say something for my great-grandfather that we mentioned here. My great-grandfather means my grandmother's father, who was the spiritual leader of the city of Slabotka. He was the head of the yeshiva of Slabotka.
He started the yeshiva in Hebron, where there was the great massacre in the 1930s. He went to Israel, set up the yeshiva, went back to Slabotka, and then was slaughtered by the vicious Nazis during the Holocaust. So, what happened? He wrote in his book an essay which is absolutely earth-shattering. It's so fundamental and so unique in its simplicity. You see, we all know that you cannot punish someone if there is no warning.
I cannot stop you, if I were a policeman, for speeding if there isn't a sign that identifies the speed limit. That's why you have signs everywhere alerting you of the speed limit, because if there is no sign, I cannot punish you. I can't hold you accountable if there is no warning. That's the way it works in the world. You know, if your child takes a lollipop, but you didn't tell him that he cannot, you can't punish him. Okay? Makes sense.
What was the Torah given in year 2448 from the creation of Adam? 2,448 years after Adam was created, Adam and Eve, on that memorable Friday, okay? 2,448 years later, the Torah was given to the Jewish people. My dear friends, I ask you, was there anybody who was punished before the Torah was given? Yes, of course. But there was no Torah to warn them. You have Noach and his generation of the flood. You have Cain and Abel, if we want to go back there.
These people were never warned. They never had a Torah that said don't steal. They never had a Torah that said don't murder. They never had any of these warnings. Why are they punished? How can you hold them accountable for something they were never warned about? Answer is my grandfather. There is something which doesn't need to be written in the Torah, and that is common sense. Common sense is not a commandment.
Common sense is ingrained in your brain that you know common sense and you know right from wrong. We all do. Every single person on planet Earth is given a brain that can evaluate and calculate right from wrong. And the very basics does not need to be told in our Torah anymore. It never needed to be told in our Torah. The Torah doesn't say don't murder. The Torah doesn't say don't steal. When it talks about murder, it's talking about not embarrassing someone in public,
not taking out a gun and shooting them in the head or stabbing them to death. That's not a commandment in the Torah. What is a commandment in the Torah is not to embarrass them publicly. Ooh, that's a different kind of murder I wasn't aware of. That common sense may not have told me. The Torah needs to tell you only one thing, what is not common sense. All of the commandments of the Torah is what's not common sense. Shotness, the mixture of wool and linen, is not common sense.
We wouldn't know that on our own. The Torah needs to tell us that. The mitzvah of slaughtering an animal, only kosher animals, that's not common sense. That's something the Torah needs to tell us. Putting on a mezuzah on our doorway, not common sense. That the Torah needs to tell us. But not to murder someone, everybody knows that. That's common sense. And that the Torah does not need to tell us. But in our generation, back to your question, Eric,
in our generation where common sense is so not common, that's something I would say to make the 11th commandment common sense. And then you're going to have all of these people arguing, well, who defines what common sense is? Common is not so common. It really isn't. And if you look at our Congress, you'll see even more lack of common sense. I mean, you see craziness where people don't know how to define, even a Supreme Court justice does not know how to define what a woman is.
What happened to common sense? The Torah says right in the beginning, and God created male and female. There's no ambiguity. It's very clear. There are two different genders. There's male and there's female. What's so complicated? You see these people who are brought in front of these different committees. Members of Congress are asking them, can you define what a woman is? Well, what's going on with us? Are you crazy? What kind of world are we living in?
Common sense, unfortunately, is very uncommon. And that's what I think should be the 11th commandment. The 11th commandment is that people must use common sense and not, I want to be nice and kind here to all of humanity, but to not poison their brain with a lack of common sense. Okay, so I hope I answered your question. And I hope that those of you who are watching this don't stone me to death. That's your 11th commandment?
It's unfortunate that this is the reality of the world we're living in where it's not very common for people to have common sense. All right, Anna. Thank you. The easy one is someone who doesn't eat bread. So what does the blessing structure look like, right? Maybe they're not eating meat either. So like your grandfather, what's the blessing before? Is there a blessing after? What's the sandwich look like around that? Okay, so I'm going to try to simplify this very, very carefully, okay?
There are two overarching blessings, okay? That's the hamotzi on bread and hagofen on wine. Now, anything that is made of flour or, you know, pastries, crackers, cookies, cakes, oatmeal, things like that fall into the category of mezonot, borei minei mezonot. And after it, you recite the blessing of al-hamikhya. There's one other thing that's added to it, which is fruits of the seven fruits of the land of Israel. That also falls into that category, wine as well,
if you're not eating it as part of a meal, as part of a hamotzi meal. Otherwise, you have fruits from a tree, which is borei priya etz. You have vegetables, which is borei priya adamah, things that grow from the ground. And then you have things that do not grow from the ground or from a tree, like meat or chicken or eggs and the like, candies that are shehakol nihi ebid varam. There are some opinions that sometimes you'll look at the Twizzlers. They have flour in there.
So perhaps you should recite a mezonot on it. It's not so simple. You should probably recite a shehakol on it. But either way, that's the general categories. And for those three, things that grow from a tree, things that grow from the ground, and things that don't grow from either, like wine or chicken or candies or those, you recite a borei nefeshot after that. And that's the third after-blessing that there is. So there's the big one, which is for bread only,
birkat ha-mezon, the grace after meals. Then you have the alamich, which is for wine and pastries. And then you have for the others, the other three remaining, and that's going to be a borei nefeshot. Okay, so I hope I answered that question. Thank you. I want to follow up on that also. Hamotzi, you said it's the primary sustenance of life. So if someone doesn't eat bread, should they be making some sort of small effort on Shabbos? Yes, to honor the Shabbos.
Now, if it's going to cost someone their health, then there are, by the way, there are other solutions to flour challahs. I know there are people who eat only spelt challahs or things like that, which are easier on the stomach. If people have issues with gluten, so there's other solutions, ot challahs, that are also of the five grains and would qualify as bread, and they would be able to have a hamotzi blessing at the beginning of the meal.
It is proper to do so because, as we know, two weeks ago in the Torah portion, we learned about the manna, the end of parashat Beshalach. And something very special happened on Friday morning. They got two breads for Friday and Shabbos. They got two and no delivery on Shabbos. Why? Amazon's closed on Shabbos. I'm just kidding. The manna is closed on Shabbos. And those two represented shamor and zohor, the two different terminologies of our adherence to the Shabbos.
And therefore, when we recite the hamotzi on Shabbos, we do so with two breads. We do so with two breads. On Friday night, we cut the bottom one, and Shabbos day, we have another two and we cut the top one. We can go into that a different time, but this is just the general idea that we, because we have the two separate commandments of observing and protecting the Shabbos, shamor and zohor, we have the two challahs representing each of those
in commemoration of the manna that was given as two separate loaves. Okay, this is the big one. So I recently looked at the crime map for Houston for the different Arabs, and you already know this. You've made comments so many times that you live in the hood, and your Arab in particular is dark red on the crime map, which is as bad as it gets. So for a single woman who's older moving into the community,
do we have to move into that type of community where it's not safe because, right, I'm thinking of, and pardon my pronunciation, piqayuq nefesh? Piqoq nefesh, yes. Thank you. Right? We're supposed to protect life. And so an older single woman moving into the community isn't necessarily going to be accepted immediately and have the same securities that other people in the community are going to have. All right, so it's a very, very good question. Let me try to address this piece by piece.
Number one, why would you want to move into the community? Great question. Okay, the reason is because the only effective way to be absorbed in a Jewish community is to be part of one. You can't live out in Cleveland, Texas, or what's that other place all the way further up, all the way up? Yeah, it's like so far out, Texas, and expect to observe the Torah and its Shabbos and its commandments because you're far from a kosher establishment, you're far from the shuls, the synagogues,
you're far from everything. So in order to be part of a Jewish community, you've got to live in a Jewish community. Okay, so that's part number one. So that's why you would want to move from where you live to the Jewish community. But what do you do with the crime? So you have to know a couple of things. First is the crime is in the same zip code, but not in our neighborhood. Our neighborhood is like an island onto its own.
It's like a ghetto, okay? Like literally like a ghetto because there's fencing, there's brick walls all around the community. Are there things that ever happen? Maybe car thefts, maybe an Amazon box stolen once every, probably less frequently than in other neighborhoods. But yes, there is crime outside of our neighborhood. It's like this oasis inside the community. You just come in there and you feel like you're in a different… No, no, you're living not under a rock. You're living in a different planet.
It's like what's going on out there has nothing to do with what's going on inside the community. It really is a remarkable reality. And I recommend those who are interested in exploring a Jewish community be in touch with me or my brother and try a Shabbos. And I'll ask David to share. David is from Huntsville, Alabama. Okay, but that's also a torch branch there, okay, to Torah Outreach Resource Center of Huntsville. So he came for Shabbos a number of times.
And I would love to hear your feedback on that because it is, I think, a game changer for people to experience the serenity that goes on in the community. All right? People look after each other. People take care of each other. You will know right away if there's a stranger walking by. It's not just like, oh, we know who the neighbors are. We know who the ones are walking their dogs that belong there and those that don't, those that are causing trouble or potentially causing trouble.
And, you know, there's also a lot of security. We do have security. We have cameras everywhere. And there's a reason for it because we want to ensure that the community stays safe. So inside the community, inside the community, I would say is safe. Offline I can share with you all the different neighborhoods. And I would say that as a general idea, Jews don't like to be in the crime. But they like to be surrounded.
For some reason, the Jewish people have communities next to Harlem in New York. They have it in Brooklyn. They have it in Crown Heights. They have it in Williamsburg, where all the crime statistics are the highest. You'll always find a densely populated Jewish community that is like a little cocoon onto its own of where, like, Shomer Shabbos Jews live. I don't understand why they didn't decide Bel-Air, you know, to establish the religious community. Why didn't they find someplace which is a little bit more upscale? Don't know.
Maybe affordability is the thing. I don't know. It doesn't make any sense. I remember I had a student that was once I was learning with. He lived in Bel-Air. He had a very, very nice house in Bel-Air, probably still does. And he said to me, you do realize I will never, ever move to your neighborhood, ever. Like, Shabbos is, you know, if it means moving to your neighborhood, I will never, ever move to your community. I totally understand that because from where he lives, that's Thugville, right?
That's not where you want to be. But inside the community, there's just a beautiful – it's a beautiful place to raise children. And we're very, very thankful to Hashem that we live there. But yeah, it's a valid question. And I would recommend trying it out and seeing for yourself that it's a lot safer. I walk almost every night. I go walking because I think it's healthy and one needs to do exercise. And I got to get my 10,000 steps in on my Fitbit.
So sometimes at, like, 11 o'clock at night, I'm like, oh, I got a few thousand steps to go. And I'll go and I see people, women too, walking because they do feel a sense of security and a sense of safety there. And it's a good thing. But I'm probably not the only one who walks around armed. I know that I'm not the only one. So that's also – we want to ensure that we are safe and that our family is safe.
And we have to – we're no longer in a generation where we're going to cower to our oppressors and the people who are going to – the Jewish community is very different. And we ask Hashem, and I pray all the time, that I never, ever need to exercise my Second Amendment rights, ever. OK, so I hope I answered your question. And come visit us in the Erev. All right. Good morning or good afternoon. Last week you asked about the music from Thank You Hashem, which is a positivity movement.
And I want to interpret what their meaning is. They give thanks to Hashem for he is good, for his kindness endures forever. Now, then you asked about a Torah study only, which I looked up and found that this is more spiritual, and the singing group is more surface level. So my question is, what is greater, in your opinion, the Torah and Talmud study or actions and good deeds? Oh, loaded question there. I love it.
OK, so let me go back to something that I've repeated many, many times over the years. I don't know if I've said it here recently. But because we are getting closer to the Pesach season, I'm going to bring this up already. You know, we sing every Seder night. We sing a very, very precious song called Dayenu. And the Dayenu song is basically giving thanks to Hashem, saying that, had you only done one, that would have been enough. But you gave us two.
Had you only done two, that would have been enough. But you gave us three. Had you only given us three, that would have been enough. And each time, we're basically glorifying Hashem that He went well beyond the call of duty, well beyond what was required.
And God, not only that He took us out of Egypt, not only that He fed us, that He split the sea for us, not only that He saved us from Amalek, not only that He gave us the manna, not only that He gave us all of these things. And what does it say? One of those statements is, had God only brought us to Mount Sinai, but didn't give us the Torah, Dayenu, that would be enough.
Now, I don't know about you, but I don't like going to the ice cream store and not getting ice cream. Okay? Why would you take me to the ice cream store and say, you only take us to the ice cream store, but not giving us ice cream, that would have been enough. I don't think so. Why would you take us? What's the purpose of taking us to Mount Sinai? To not give us the Torah.
Had you only given us, brought us to Mount Sinai, but not given us the Torah, Dayenu, that would be enough. So my grandfather says something so critically important about this. He brought this from a Birochem, his rabbi, who would say the following. The entire purpose of Mount Sinai was to build a relationship with God. Everything that was at Mount Sinai was about a relationship with God. It's just like if someone were to propose marriage upon their betrothed.
They go and they say, you know, I would like to ask for your hand in marriage. And before she says yes, she says, well, what does this entail? Well, what's if you're sick? And what's if, who gets the house? You know what? It's ridiculous. That's not love. Love is like, yes, dear, I'm in. Whatever it takes, through thick and thin, till death do us part. We don't try to qualify this. We say, yes, we're in. And that's what the Jewish people did.
The Jewish people said, na sevinishma, we're in. We're in 100%. But what's going to preserve that? What's going to memorialize that? Did you ever go on vacation? Yeah? Did you bring something back from your vacation? Yes. What did you bring back? A culture. Tell me. Tell me objects you brought back. Oh, I brought back sweaters and shoes. And you brought back, I'm sure, a mug. And, you know, so every time you drink your coffee. Yeah, I did have a mug.
Right? From which place? From Mexico. From Mexico. There we go. So we go to Mexico. And what do we come back with? We come back with a mug. Why? Because when I sit on my back porch in Houston, Texas, on a beautiful day like today, drink my coffee, you know what I want to do? I want to look at that mug and say, ah, you remember when we were in Mexico? Do you remember the people we met?
Do you remember the places we went? We went to the cenotes. Right? We saw the hot springs. And we saw this. And we saw that. And it was so special. And we relived the experience. Our sages tell us that the entire Torah is to relive the experience at Mount Sinai. The purpose was not for the Torah. The purpose was for reliving the relationship with God. That means every single mitzvah that you observe by putting on the tefillin every day
and putting the mezuzah on the door and by keeping the Shabbos, what you're able to do with that performance of the mitzvah is to relive the whole relationship of us and God at Mount Sinai. We never, ever, ever had the clarity of the relationship as we did at Mount Sinai. It was clear night and day. We're in. We're in. No questions asked. God asked the nations of the world, what? Do you want the Torah? Do you want the Torah?
Every nation said, well, what's in it? What's in it? I need to know. Let's qualify this. What happens when you turn 60 and you're not feeling well? Do I have to take you to the hospital or can I just run out on vacation with my friends? That's what they all asked. What does it mean? What's in it? What's our obligation to this relationship? The Jewish people didn't do that. The Jewish people said, we want a relationship with you.
We don't care what it entails. Whatever it entails, we're in. Whatever it entails. So now we understand a little bit more when we talk about the thank you Hashem movement versus the just sit and learn movement. I think that what we need to remember is what is the purpose of it all? Is sitting and learning important? Very important. Probably the most important thing we have. But we can't do that and not feel the closeness with Hashem.
You know, to have dveikos, you know what dveikos means? It's a verse in our Torah. To be close to Hashem, to be one with Hashem. I'll just tell you in modern Hebrew, the word dveik means glue. Dveikot means to glue yourself with God. Means I'm one with God. If a person learns Torah and doesn't become close to God, perhaps it may not be worth anything. If a person performs a mitzvah and doesn't come close to God, not that it's not worth anything, God forbid,
of course it's very valuable, it's very precious, and it's a mitzvah unto its own. But there is an agenda in learning Torah. And that agenda is to become closer to Hashem. That means that even if you study Torah and you don't understand a single word and you don't have any conclusions when you're done, you still delved in your closeness with God. I'm on a mission to get closer to God. And if one sings happy clappy all day with thank you Hashem
and doesn't feel closer to God, it's also a problem. So all of these are critically important because the goal of all of them is to establish, reinvigorate, and promote our relationship with Hashem. The entire purpose of all of it is closeness with Hashem. So if one is learning Torah without the closeness of Hashem, problem. If one is observing mitzvahs without closeness to Hashem, problem. If one is singing songs and dancing and everything and not feeling closeness to Hashem, also problem. Now we come to today's question.
And that is, in our generation, what are we dealing with? We're dealing with a world that is extremely exposed to media, to culture. How many emails did I get today about a kosher Super Bowl party halftime? Kosher. Why are rabbis speaking on halftime programs? Because the world... You know, I got an email also this morning of a Minch HaMeirav that you can daven earlier before watching the Super Bowl. Because after the Super Bowl, who wants to schlep out to go daven Meirav,
to go daven the evening service? It's a reality. The reality of the world that we're living in is that people are exposed to an external world. It once was possible that people sitting in Beis Medrash, in the study hall, in Vilna, didn't know about the Super Bowl. It's not the reality anymore. So now that we are exposed to a world, so we have two options. Either we close our eyes and say it doesn't exist,
or we try to do whatever we can to elevate the world around us. So what are the options? Look, right now what we're doing in this room is we have here a board recording for podcasts. We have our friends here online on Zoom. We have a camera here at 4K processing and distributing it out on Facebook, on YouTube, on Twitter, on X, on LinkedIn, on Rumble, and all of these different platforms. We can put our head in the sand and say these things don't exist,
or we can say we're going to elevate these platforms and bring more Torah to the world. And those of you out there, give us a thumbs up. We appreciate it, okay? But you understand that this is the reality of the world we're living in. And I think that that's sort of there's, you know, when the television came out, there were many, many rabbis who said, don't allow it in your house, don't bring it in your house. In fact, there are many schools that said that students
who have televisions at home, we don't want them in our school because they're going to be influenced from outside sources. We want our school to stay pure. Same thing with radios. Today, you have these phones, and there are many, many people, including my children, who have kosher phones. They don't have internet, and they don't have access to the outside world. But overall, the world is exposed, and you cannot, and I don't think it's a reality anymore for us to assume
that people are not going to know what internet is and that people aren't going to have access to all of these things. So now we have two choices. We can either say it's terrible and it's evil and people are going to do it anyway, or we can create content for them to learn and grow from. Us as an outreach organization, our mission is to share Torah with the world, and therefore we'll continue to do everything we can, with the approval of our sages of our generation,
to share Torah to as many Jews possible. And the same goes with Jewish music. People are going to have a choice. Can they listen to exciting, non-Jewish, secular music, talking about bad values and bad things, or can I listen to Jewish music that's exciting, equally as oomphed up and exciting, and hopefully bring you closer to Hashem? Now, it doesn't have to be that stark of a contrast. It could be normal Jewish music that is also uplifting and special,
and doesn't have to be crazy music either. But again, the reality of the world is that there's a different culture, and we can either hide ourselves or embrace it and try to channel it in the best way possible. And I think, you know something very interesting? When the ban on the internet came out, surprisingly, my grandfather did not sign that letter. There was a ban that people should not have internet in their home, okay? And there were many, many great rabbis that signed the letter.
My grandfather did not sign the letter. And I asked my grandfather, why not? And my grandfather said, because you use internet in my house, right? I would connect the dial-up, because I would send out a Dvar Torah every week. I would send it out, and when I was living in Israel, I would hook up my computer to my grandfather's phone jack and send my email to all of those, you've got mail, right? And I would send it out to all of my constituents
and send out my Dvar Torah, get offline. And my grandfather, I showed my grandfather what I was doing. My grandfather said, I can't be a hypocrite, where in my home, my grandson is connecting to the internet to send out a Dvar Torah, whatever it is, and then at the same time sign a letter against it. I can't do that. But you know what my grandfather did not do? He didn't reprimand me and say, why do you have internet in my house?
Why are you busy with this nonsense? He realized that there is a virtue to it, okay? And it could be that he was happy that I was using the internet in his house, it could be, so that he didn't have to sign such a letter, okay? But either way, we have to understand that the... Now, is it a good thing for people to stay off the internet if they can? Yes, 100%. And if someone can stay away from secular influence, that's the best thing in the world.
Again, we have this world like we mentioned in a previous question in our Ask Away number 32. We talked about influences of what would be the 11th commandment, common sense. Well, all too much today in our crazy society and culture, we see that people don't have common sense. Can that influence us? Yes, it can. So we have to be careful what the intake is, and we have to monitor that as well. And just like you wouldn't give your child cocaine on the table,
internet is a form of cocaine. I'm not kidding. Yes, it is a form of cocaine where the dopamine and the influence it has on children is no different than cocaine would have. So just like you wouldn't put open cocaine on a table, and you wouldn't recommend it for adults either, so too internet is not much different. Now, if a person is guided, a person has guided access, and a person has protection, whereas there are tools for mature people
to not be exposed to things that are harmful to them, that's a good thing. That's a good thing, and we talked about this numerous times. So I hope I answered your question suitably. The only thought I had was that being appreciative and saying thank you to Hashem is part of our Musa. That's right. So that's an obligation for every person to do, which is why we recite 100 blessings a day. So we have Thank You Hashem is a fabulous movement.
I know the people who started it. I know the people who run it, and I encourage them to continue and to do everything they can to what their mission is, is to make Hashem cool again. Okay, make Hashem cool again so when people can sing to Hashem, people can praise Hashem, and people can verbalize their affection for Hashem in a way. And yes, and if a person needs a song for it, great, keep it up. And if someone can sit and learn Torah too all day,
they should do that as well. One is not a contradiction to the other. And now if someone's going to say, well, then people are getting drunk and they're going to parties and they're going to this, I don't know that that's part of their mission, frankly. And the fact that people do that and that they're connected to Thank You Hashem is a great thing, that Thank You Hashem is taking them, hopefully elevating them from their lowly level of drunkenness.
I think that that's, where do they turn it to? They're actually turning to a source that could be very powerful in changing them and giving them a better course in their life. So I think that that's a good thing. That, you know, God bless. Thank You Hashem. I recommend it. Go to Thank You Hashem on YouTube and go to Thank You Hashem on all of the interwebs. You will love it. You will love it. You will love it. They have great music.
They have great, and by the way, a tremendous amount of Torah that they share. And the Torah which is uplifting, Torah which is elevating, Torah which is fulfilling, and I highly recommend. I don't consider them to be anything but an exceptional organization. And with that, we're going to turn the floor to Ed for his question. Go for it. Rabbi, you said that if you can't remember if you said a blessing, rather than say it, don't say it.
Well, being an observer of the 11th commandment, common sense tells me that if you said a blessing twice, it does no harm. But if you don't say it at all, it does harm. Very good. Great question. Well, there's something else which we have to keep in mind, and that is saying God's name in vain, which is a Biblical prohibition. A commandment to recite blessings is a rabbinic obligation. Not saying God's name in vain is a Biblical one, of the Big Ten, by the way.
Okay? So not to say God's name in vain. So therefore, if a person is unsure, you don't violate a potential Biblical prohibition for a rabbinic obligation. So therefore, if one is unsure, they should not recite the blessing again. However, if one is... I think I may not have. That's not unsure. If a person is accustomed to reciting blessings all the time, then the assumption is that they didn't forget this time. If a person is not accustomed to reciting blessings all the time,
then it's likely that they did not recite a blessing, and they should recite one then. I'll just tell you that if someone started eating, and this has happened to me numerous times, where you suddenly realize, oh my goodness, I didn't recite a blessing, the proper thing is to take it out of your mouth. If you can't do so, then move it to the side of your mouth, the halacha says, and recite the blessing as clearly as you can, and then continue to chew on your food.
But it is best to... That's why it's best also to have structured meals, especially with family. I try to recite blessings out loud so that my children learn, and it gives them an opportunity to recite amen after the blessing, which is part and almost equal to the recitation of the blessing. Okay? One more question. Here we go. One more. No problem. Don't worry about it. So you make a soup. You put a lot of chicken in it, a lot of water,
a lot of vegetables, egg noodles. So you got, you know... Mozza balls, you know, green beans, onions, and it's all cooked up, but you can still see the chicken because you're going to take out the chicken, and you can still see the noodles, you're going to take out the noodles, et cetera. Do you just... Bravename means a note. I'm sorry, not means a note. Shakol. Shakol. Even though it's got all these other ones, distinct things that have not dissolved
to the point where they're no longer recognizable. Okay, very good question. So it depends on the consistency of the soup. If the soup still has an actual piece of chicken there, it has an actual piece of carrot, an actual mozza ball there, and it's not all ground up, like sometimes you'll go to a dinner, and they'll have a... What do they call that? They call it like a cream of mushroom, a cream of... But it's not... You can't...
There's no mushroom there, tangible, that you're able to see, right? Because it's all ground up, or that they call zhuzhed up. In that case, it becomes a soup, and it's only shakol niyeh bedverol. However, if they're individually identified, according to most halachic sources, you will recite a blessing on each of them individually. Okay? That means you'll take a piece of the mizonot, which comes first, and you'll have the mizonot, whichever part, that could be the...
What do you call those pasta things that you put in there? The noodles. Or you'll put in... Or you'll have the matzah ball, which is a mizonot because it's made out of matzah meal, and that would go first. And then you would take a vegetable, and then you would recite on the rest of the broth, you'd recite that blessing. We talked about it in Simmon 42, I believe. We talked about this. Again, if they're self-identified on their own,
then it's appropriate to recite a separate blessing. Now, if there's a blend like a chalant, which has barley, that does take precedence over... Because that's one big mix. That's why it's called a chalant. Chalant is one big mix of a bunch of things together. But anyways, that's part of a meal that one eats anyway. So that would not... If you add that first, that takes away all of the doubt anyway. That's correct. All right, one more. Hannah.
So somebody with food restrictions, is this genius or not genius to just have a kitchen that is dairy-free? Does that solve a lot of problems? Yes, there are people who do that, and they have a dairy-free and a meat-free. It's just parav. We have our counter. We have a milk-dairy counter, a meat counter, and a dairy counter. And a parav counter, sorry. So again, meat, dairy, parav. And that way you keep the stuff separate. Ovens as well.
You can have a meat oven, a dairy oven, and a parav oven. There are many people who do that as well. Those who don't eat meat or dairy can have everything parav. That's fine. And parav is, again, that's neutral. It's not meat. It's not dairy. Parav can go with meat. Parav can go with dairy. Yes. Let me give you an example, okay? An example of something parav would be salad, potatoes, right? Salad, what do you have?
A few different vegetables in there. Some people like to throw also some fruit, a little grapefruit and some other things, whatever you want to have there. You can have that with a meat dish. You can have that with a dairy dish. Now, not means don't keep them separate, okay? So if you want, I would say things that are put on, this is a general good principle. Things that are put onto a dairy table, keep dairy. Things that go onto a meat table,
keep meat. Okay, what does that mean? If you have your salad that you put on a meat table, it is fair to assume that someone took from that salad, put it on their plate, and now some of the meat or chicken got on that serving utensil and was put back into that salad, okay? So now you've got meat and chicken or whatever it is in that salad, okay? So continue to observe with that salad as meat.
Even though it's a neutral part of on its own, but because it was served on a table with meat, it's likely going to turn meat. And same thing with dairy, okay? My dear friends, this concludes episode number 32 of the Ask Away series. I look forward to continuing our journey together of learning and growing and becoming the greatest possible Jews. Thank you, Hashem, for giving us the opportunity to study Torah every single day. Thank you and have a great week, everybody.
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