Rephael Cattan

 We are continuing in siman 9, discussing the halachos of hadlakas neiros. We learned that a woman who is blind is able to light and even make a bracha, provided she is able to gain something from the neiros. However, if there are already other neiros there, she should not make a bracha.  To explain, […]

  We are beginning siman 9. The Chayei Adam writes that although we have learned that the mitzvah of hadlakas neiros applies both to men and women, the woman has precedence over the mitzvah. In other words, if a husband and wife have a disagreement over who should light the neiros, even though it could

We are beginning siman 8, which begins the Chayei Adam’s discussion of hadlakas neiros. We learned that the halacha is one must beg for money if they cannot afford neiros. The Chayei Adam continues, and writes that it is more important to spend money on neiros over wine for kiddush, because they can make kiddush

 We are beginning siman 8, which begins the Chayei Adam’s discussion of hadlakas neiros. There are two reasons behind the halacha of hadlakas neiros.  The first is shalom bayis. If a home is dark, people will trip, get hurt, and get angry, and tear apart the simcha and shalom bayos which should exist. If so,

 We are beginning siman 7, which discusses the preparation of the home for Shabbos. The Chayei Adam writes that one should set their table and make the beds before accepting Shabbos. The Chayei Adam is referring primarily to the couches they would recline on when eating, but it applies to all beds in the house

We are continuing in siman 6, where the Chayei Adam is discussing that which is muttar and assur during bein hashmashos. We have learned that Chayei Adam holds amira l’achum is permitted, even on an issur deoraysa, provided there is a significant loss. However, if there is no significant loss, one may not perform amira

 We are continuing in siman 6. We left off with the Chayei Adam’s statement that one cannot separate challah during bein hashmashos, even though it would appear to be an issur derabanan and a significant need, which should be muttar bein hashmashos. Today, we will explain the Chayei Adam’s reasoning. The halacha is that, mideoraysa,

We are continuing in siman 6. We have touched on the ideas that the Chayei Adam will discuss; today we will learn them inside.   The Chayei Adam writes that dinei derabanan are not automatically permitted bein hashmashos. However, if one has a significant need, or it is for a mitzvah, it is muttar. The

We are continuing in siman 6. We have learned that during bein hashmashos, issurei derabanan are muttar for the purpose of a mitzvah or for a significant need. There are certain derabanans, such as hatmana and eruvei chatzeiros, which are muttar regardless. On the other hand, there are also issurei derabanan which are assur even

We are beginning siman 6, where the Chayei Adam will give a comprehensive overview of what is muttar and assur depending on when one accepts Shabbos, and depending on who accepts Shabbos (individual or community). We will begin with an introduction. The Gemara in Eruvin brings a machlokes between Rebbi and the rabbanan about whether

  We are continuing in siman 5, where the Chayei Adam explained the difference between early Shabbos accepted by an individual as opposed to a community. This difference explains the contradictions between the various places in the Shulchan Aruch which discuss what is assur during bein hashmashos.    There is another answer, not mentioned by

We are continuing in siman 5, where we learned the idea that if the community accepts Shabbos early, it is binding on all individuals in that community. We also learned Rav Moshe’s caveat that it only applies if the community accepted Shabbos early for the purpose of the mitzvah, and not just for convenience. The

  We are beginning siman 4. The Chayei Adam writes that if one davens maariv early on Friday night, they accept Shabbos through their davening. They can not do melacha, even if they explicitly stipulate that they do not want to accept Shabbos through their davening. The Chayei Adam is pointing out that the act

We are about to begin siman 4, where the Chayei Adam will discuss the different levels of accepting Shabbos. We will begin with an introduction to understand the basis for the Chayei Adam, and how we derive there could be different levels of acceptance.    There is a seeming contradiction in the Shulchan Aruch. In

We are continuing in siman 2. We will not read the remainder of the siman inside, but essentially the Chayei Adam strongly admonishes people who continue to do melacha until late on erev Shabbos. He continues his admonishment in siman 3 as well.   We need to clarify a question. We learned that one can

We are beginning siman 2, where the Chayei Adam discusses what a person needs to do in order to accept Shabbos. We learned that according to the Chayei Adam, the minimal amount of tosefes Shabbos is accepted automatically. The Chayei Adam writes that this amount of time is 30 minutes. Today, we will clarify how

  We are beginning siman 2, where the Chayei Adam discusses what a person needs to do in order to accept Shabbos. The question will depend on whether tosefes Shabbos is automatically added to Shabbos, or whether one must intentionally add it on. Within the possibility that one must intentionally accept tosefes Shabbos, we will

We are continuing in siman 1. We left off with the Chayei Adam writing that one should minimally accept Shabbos 30 minutes before nightfall, because the combination of bein hashmashos, tosefes Shabbos, and the impercision time equal to about 30 minutes. In the Piskei Mishnah Berurah, in number 3, they bring that the Mishnah Berurah

We are continuing in siman 1. The Chayei Adam writes that there is a mitzvah of tosefes Shabbos both on erev Shabbos and motzei Shabbos.  The Chayei Adam follows the majority opinion of the rishonim that tosefes Shabbos is deoraysa. He writes that the source is the pasuk regarding Yom Kippur which states be’tisha lachodesh

We are continuing in siman 1. We left off with a contradiction in the Chayei Adam: on the one hand, he writes that the earliest one can accept Shabbos is plag (1 ¼ hours before nightfall); on the other hand, he praises one who accepts Shabbos two hours before nightfall.    One way to resolve