Rephael Cattan

 We are continuing in siman 7, where the Chayei Adam is discussing the issues with traveling on erev Shabbos. The Gemara says one can travel up to 3 parsah on erev Shabbos, which, as we learned yesterday, allows one to travel for approximately the first third of the day. This comes out to approximately four […]

We are beginning siman 7. The Chayei Adam addresses the issue of traveling on erev Shabbos. Obviously, a person has to have the foresight to not get stuck in a situation in which they end up having to travel on Shabbos itself. A person has to calculate the amount of time necessary to arrive properly.

We are beginning siman 6. The Chayei Adam will discuss various situations in which melacha is permitted on erev Shabbos. We learned (S0020) that melacha which is done in an ara’i fashion–meaning, on a one-off basis–is muttar on erev Shabbos after the zman mincha.  The other explanation of ara’i is something which is done easily

 We are beginning siman 6. The Chayei Adam will discuss working on Erev Shabbos, based on a Gemara in Pesachim. The Chayei Adam writes that part of the idea of kavod Shabbos is not to run into Shabbos at the last moment. When possible, a person should give themselves a space of time in which

We have finished siman 5, where the Chayei Adam discussed sharpening knives for Shabbos. We mentioned one reason is to prevent disagreements and increase shalom bayis. We know that Chazal were concerned with increasing shalom bayis on Shabbos as much as possible. The Gemara says there were two reasons for the takana of neiros Shabbos,

 We are beginning siman 5. The Chayei Adam writes that a person should give kavod to Shabbos, and have oneg on Shabbos, by having a nice, plentiful seudah. They should include meat, fish and other good tasting food, depending on a person’s financial ability. The Chayei Adam mentions meat, but we need to determine whether

 We are continuing in siman 4, discussing the amount of dough one must create to be chayav in separating challah. Yesterday, we learned that in the opinion of the Chazon Ish, one must create a dough of five pounds to separate challah with a bracha, and about 2 pounds 11 ounces to separate challah without

We are continuing in siman 4, where the Chayei Adam has been discussing the importance of baking challah for Shabbos. One of the reasons mentioned by the Chayei Adam about the importance of baking challah was in order to separate challah as an atonement for the sin of Chavah (see shiur S0013). Today, we will

 We are continuing in siman 4, but have taken a tangent to discuss the halachos of pas akum, pas palter, and pas yisroel. Today, we will discuss the items to which pas palter applies.  Pas palter applies to bread. Bread is baked, not cooked. Because of its significance as a staple in people’s lives, Chazal

We are continuing in siman 4, but have taken a tangent to discuss the halachos of pas akum, pas palter, and pas yisroel. We last learned that when bais din makes a takana, if Klal Yisroel does not accept it, it can be rescinded by a later bais din, even if the later bais din

We are continuing in siman 4, discussing the mitzvah of kavod shabbos. In this context, the Chayei Adam discusses baking challah for shabbos. He gives two reasons as to why one should bake challah for shabbos, and  we began discussing the first reason yesterday. We know that there is a mitzvah of hafroshas challah, that

  We are beginning siman 4. The Chayei Adam will discuss some examples of kavod shabbos. The first one he discusses is bread.    The Chayei Adam discusses whether it is more kavod shabbos to buy bread from the store or to bake bread at home. If one is not a good baker, and the

 We are continuing in siman 3, which discusses the concept of kavod Shabbos. Yesterday, we learned that the Gra explains that the Rambam understands that the mitzvah of kavod Shabbos applies primarily before Shabbos, while oneg primarily applies on Shabbos itself.  We can learn a fascinating point from the Gra. We have a concept of

 We are beginning siman 3. The Chayei Adam writes that it is a mitzvah for a person to be personally involved in the preparations for Shabbos. This is true even if a person has many servants, family members or other household help. We find that many amoraim undertook some action in the preparations for Shabbos,

We are continuing in siman 2. We have learned that a person should make their purchases for Shabbos as early as possible on Friday morning. If the items will not be available after davening, they should purchase them before davening, but otherwise the correct order is to daven first and then make their purchases.  If

 We are beginning siman 2. The Chayei Adam points out that there is a mitzvah to prepare for Shabbos. In the context of what we learned in siman 1, it is an element of the mitzvah of zachor es yom hashabbos lekadesho. By preparing for Shabbos, one is expressing their concern and interest in Shabbos,

 We have finished siman 1, and left off with the concept of mitzvos tzrichos kavanah. We have learned about this concept in the past, but will review it today.  The Gemara in Rosh Hashanah brings a machlokes whether mitzvos tzrichos kavanah or not. Kavanah does not mean deep kabbalistic incantations, but rather an awareness that

 We have finished siman 1 and have a few points to clarify. The primary source for the halachos of the Chayei Adam in this siman are from the Ramban in Parshas Yisro. The Ramban adds a few other important points which we will discuss today.  The Ramban writes that the same way we count the

We are continuing in siman 1, discussing the mitzvah of zachor es yom hashabbos lekadesho. The Chayei Adam discusses a situation in which a person loses count of the days of the week. The Gemara gives the example of a person lost in the desert. Since one is only allowed to perform melacha on Shabbos