Last minute Halachot for PeSach

0:12It's going to be a two-part shiur. The first part is going to go over some basic halachot for Pesach. We're obviously not going to cover a lot. We'll cover a few things that I think most people either don't know or they forget. In regards to preparation for Pesach, obviously if you haven't started preparing for Pesach, then that's a serious problem. But you still have tomorrow. You still have tomorrow, and if you... is going to go over some basic halachot for Pesach. We're obviously not going to cover a lot. We'll cover a few things that I think most people either don't know or they forget. In regards to preparation for Pesach, obviously if you haven't started preparing for Pesach, then that's a serious problem. But you still have tomorrow. You still have tomorrow, and if you... know what you're doing, and you don't overkill, but you just do what you have to. Tomorrow is even enough to get ready for Pesach, assuming you have a normal-sized house. So, the first part of the shiur, hopefully, I'll try to limit it to about a half hour to 40 minutes maximum. We're going to go over some basic halachot of what you need to do in regards to chametz, in regards to the preparation, and so on.

1:28And then the rest of the time, you know, another three to four hours, is going to be about Pesach itself, as far as the significance of it, why do we continue celebrating it, why did Mordechai HaYehudi, when he found out about the decree that's happening from Haman HaRasha, he was part of the Sanhedrin, and he made it a decree that everybody has to fast, When? On the eve of Pesach. On the eve of Pesach. And the Gemara says, I mean, you had the time of the decree versus the time of when the decree is going to be passed, which was a year. So there was a year, wasn't there? In the Megillah, it seems like it was three days later. It's not. It's a year later. So you had a whole year. Why don't you just have the decree... know to fast on Yom Kippur or any other day. Why do you want everyone to fast on Pesach? So, we'll go over that. We'll go over some interesting things as far as fact or fiction, and we'll try to finish up with a story that...

2:53It was worth it to come to the world just to hear it. It was worth it to come to the world just to hear the story. So b'ezrat Hashem, if you didn't hear a story tonight that was worth it to come to the world for, that means that I forgot to tell you. So remind me. Because it's definitely one of those stories that has to do with who Am Yisrael really is. So with that being said, let's get started. Now the halachot that I'm going over right now, it's a Sephardi tradition. number one, because I'm sorry, number two, because many of the people that watch us—I would say the majority of them, not all, but the majority of them, probably sixty percent, maybe even sixty-five percent of the people that watch us—learn halacha for Ashkenazim, which is not that different. It's not such a wide variance that people think. Even the Aggadah, for example, a lot of people are very... have a very big problem when it comes to English readers and speakers when it comes to buying books in English because the Ashkenazim are brothers. The Ashkenazim are much more organized than the Sfaradim, and they have pretty much everything and anything that you need relating to Torah translated to English. And in today's world, I think that people that don't read

4:19whatever they're reading, whether it's the Chumash, or Siddur, or Gemara, or Sifrei Tzaddikim, at least once, in English, in their first language, I think they're making a very dear mistake, simply because when it's your first language, you're going to understand it better, so the next time you read it, if you know how to read Hebrew, at least you'll understand the meaning of every word, because it's more important to know the meaning of everything, than to read in Hebrew. With the exception of the Chumash, ideally you're supposed to read it in Hebrew, but that's assuming that you understand every word. If you don't understand every word, then you have to read it in English. So anyway, the Ashkenazim have, Baruch Hashem, a very, very powerful tradition. Unity, where they've put together a few major publishers that have published a lot of our Torah in English. The Sephardim, on the other hand, not so much. B'ezrat Hashem, that will change with time. But in reality, it's not as much. So, for example, if you're looking for a Siddur with translation in both English and Hebrew, and...

5:37Ashkenazi, you're going to get dozens, dozens of different versions and publishers and so on. Sephardi, less than half a dozen. If you want transliteration, meaning you want English translation as well as transliteration, which is writing the English words in a way to pronounce the Hebrew words, Siddur, you'll come up with two, maybe three. that I know for sure. I'm assuming there's a third one I don't know about, but that's it. You don't have very much. So, the same goes with Haggadah. If you're looking for an English Haggadah that's Ashkenazi, you have, Baruch Hashem, dozens of them. The Haggadah is one of those; it's probably the most famous book out of all of our books aside from the Chumash that we have in our Torah. And... There are many, many different types of Haggadot. There are many people that actually collect Haggadot because each Haggadah has its own beauty. Some have pictures, some don't have pictures. Some have different types of writings and so on. So the Ashkenazim, Baruch Hashem, have translated many of them to English. On the other hand, among Sephardim, very, very few. There are a few, but it's very, very few.

6:59And sometimes this bothers some people, especially Sephardim. It bothers them that they can't find it, or it's not enough. Well, fear not, the reality is that the difference between the Haggadah of the Ashkenazim and the Haggadah of the Sephardim is minute. It's so minute, most likely you will not notice it, because the biggest difference in all of it is Birkat Hamazon. That's the biggest difference. The rest of it is very, very similar. Almost identical. 90%, 95% is the same. So, if you're an English speaker and you can't find a Haggadah, a Sephardi Haggadah that you like, buy an Ashkenazi Haggadah and you'll be fine. So, like I said, we'll go over a little bit for the first half hour, so we'll go over some of the halachot for Pesach, and then we'll go into the meat of it, as far as why we even celebrate Pesach, how do we even know that the story of Mitzrayim really happened. I mean, technically there's a lot of naysayers, a lot of heretics, some of them even call themselves half-religious, that put more and more doubts into people's minds. So we need to go into the...

8:26To see where we connect with Pesach, what's the obligation, and so on. So, as far as right now, you have a couple of days or less than a couple of days to get to Pesach. First and foremost, you have to make sure that you find all the chametz in your house and you have to do one of two things with it. If it's chametz that you've already opened the box, it's a box of cereal, it's a box of pasta, it's something that you've already used that in reality no one would buy from you. If you wanted to sell it to somebody, Baruch Hashem, you live in America, you live in the UK, you live in Canada, which in today's world most of the Jewish people are doing fairly well, no one's going to buy half a box of pasta from you. No one's going to buy... theoretically speaking, no one's gonna buy half a box of cereal from you. So that stuff you throw out, unless you're struggling financially and that would be considered a major loss to you. In that case, you can include it in your sale of the chametz. So first and foremost, throw out all the stuff that you’re not using anyway and you’re not going to be using, all the stuff that’s pretty much gonna be bad by the time the holiday is over, all the stuff that’s really not sellable. And

9:41So you have to throw it all out. Now, if you have to sell the chametz, this is something that you can do in probably every single kehillah around the world. The Rabbi has somebody who is willing to buy the chametz. A goy has to buy the chametz. you have to sign a document that you are selling the chametz, but also, this chametz, you can't leave it exactly where it is. Meaning, you have to take all the chametz that's in your house, and you have to put it in one place. So you can pick a room, or a closet, or wherever it is, or a fridge, and then, after you gather all this chametz, you lock it. You lock the door. No one's allowed in this room. No one's allowed in this fridge. No one's allowed in this, whatever place that you put the chametz, whether it's a closet or another location. You have to tie it, you have to lock it, whatever is necessary. You need to do something so that it's not easily accessible, you know, not to break down the lock. It's simply to remind yourself and anyone in your family not to enter that place.

10:49Not to enter that place because this is a place of chametz and you're not allowed to utilize this chametz in any way. You don't want to be one of those people who forgets in the middle of the night, wakes up, wants a cookie, and forgets that this place has a cookie and it's chametz. If you eat chametz, it's issur karet. Karet means being cut off from the nation. It's the worst sin in the entire Torah. The same thing goes with owning chametz. You're not allowed to own chametz. And last but not least, you're not allowed to benefit from chametz. So this applies to people that have pets. If you have pets, you have a dog, you have fish, you have a cat, you have a kangaroo, whatever you have, you have to feed them food that's kosher for Pesach. Now, if you can't find kosher for Pesach food for this pet, either feed them kosher for Pesach food that you're eating, or give the animal to somebody for the whole week. Under no condition can you feed your animals non-kosher for Pesach food. Now, this is a very serious problem for people that have fish because most fish food, in general, you're not allowed to use the whole year. Most people don't know this. I actually only found this out this year. Most fish food you're not allowed to use the whole year as a Jew, and the reason why is because most fish food utilizes both milk and meat.

12:14At the same time, I never even knew there's either milk or meat in fish food until recently. And that's apparently what the case is. Most fish food, you're not allowed to use at all. Milk and meat, you're not allowed to eat, you're not allowed to cook, and you're not allowed to benefit from, which means you're not allowed to feed it to your animal, you're not allowed to sell it, and so on. So, fish food, you have to go out of your way and find some type of, I don't know, vegetarian fish food or something. There is the list that we published yesterday. A few days ago, a couple of suppliers had it. Get yourself together and get that fish food, because either way, you're going to have to use that food for the rest of the year. Same thing goes with dog food, or cat food, or any of these other pets. You have to feed them kosher for Pesach food. You cannot give animals non-kosher for Pesach, because you're not allowed to eat it, and you're also not allowed to benefit from it, which means not to sell it, and you're not allowed to give it to your animal. Now, the Yalkut Yosef here says, everyone must clean their home in preparation for Pesach, so it's chametz free before the evening of the 14th of Nisan.

13:23The night before Yom Tov. That's tomorrow. So by tomorrow night, your whole house has to be clean, not by Friday morning. Even though technically you're still allowed to eat chametz on Friday morning up to about, I would say, 10 o'clock maybe. You have to look at the clocks, your local clock, to see exactly what it is in your location. Go to myzmanim.com or the other app that's in the... Call your local rabbi on the phone. They'll tell you the exact time based on your location. When does the Chag officially start? But you're allowed to eat chametz until that time. But as far as your house itself, it has to be cleaned by tomorrow night. By tomorrow night, this means it includes the yard. It includes all the rooms in the house. You must have no chametz in your possession on Pesach. You also have to inspect the pockets in your clothes. uh, pockets of the kids, especially kids, always have some type of, uh, kids and fat people usually have food in their pockets. I know it because I'm one of them. Uh, you always have something like a cookie or candy or something. So, uh, it's briefcases, suitcases, all the stuff you have to check.

14:46You have little kids, there's definitely some type of chocolate bar in one of their drawers that has t-shirts in it too, most likely. So you have to look at this stuff, all the obvious stuff. You don't have to clean their toys with one of those, what are they called, the waters that they clean the streets with—the pressure cleaners. The pressure cleaner, you don't have to do that. You don't have to clean old pressure cleaners. Dust is not chametz. Dust is not chametz. But at the same token, you have to remove all of the obvious stuff. So there are certain toys that have big holes in them. You know, whether it's Legos, or it's, I don't know, some other cups and kitchen stuff, look at that stuff to remove the chametz. Even though it's most likely not food that you would eat, the way that you would identify something as valid chametz or not valid chametz is if a dog would eat it. If a dog would eat it. And a dog is not as picky as you. So if a dog sees a three-week-old piece of bread,

16:00three-week-old, you know, some type of bar of something, most likely he'll eat it. Unless it has mold and things like that, then at that point, maybe it's possible a dog won't eat it. But you have to make sure that you go over all the things, all the little nooks and crannies out there, and make sure that the chametz is removed from the clothes, from the toys, and so on. Anyone who's careful to avoid all chametz throughout the festival of Pesach is guaranteed that he will not succumb to sin throughout the year. Now, the sages taught that at the start of the evening of the 14th of Nisan, we search for chametz by the light of the lamp. This means that the proper time for the search is immediately after dusk, or about 20 minutes after sunset. If someone performed the search immediately after sunset and before dusk, he's fulfilled his obligations. It's proper, in such a situation, for him to continue to search after dusk for at least a few minutes. Now, the searching for chametz is one of the mitzvot that people fail at miserably. The reason why is because people think this is just a custom. What they do is they take ten pieces. There's a custom to take ten pieces of chametz, usually bread, put it in a bag or something, hide it,

17:22and then go look for it around the house. You know, sometimes you know where it is, or if you had your wife do it, then you don't know where it is, and then you find it that way. Now, although this is supposed to be a fun thing, where you're supposed to take your kids with you and go look for these ten pieces, you're not supposed to just look for those ten pieces. You're supposed to look for real chametz. You're supposed to look for real chametz. And the ten pieces should help you Do that. It's not supposed to be like you know exactly where the ten pieces are, and pretty much you finish the whole thing in three minutes, and say, "Okay, guys, chag sameach." No. You're supposed to really go and look for the chametz, however much time it takes. However much time it takes. If it takes 15 minutes, okay. If it takes an hour, okay. If it takes three or four hours, then obviously you're doing really good. But the point is that it doesn't need to take three hours, but it shouldn't take five or ten minutes either. If you have kids, take your time. You're allowed to—I mean, the tradition is to use a fire, use a candle—but because it's dangerous, especially if you have kids, you're allowed to use a flashlight. Everybody says you're allowed to use a flashlight. That's what we do. We use a flashlight because we have two little kids, and the reality is, as cute as they are, they don't understand the danger of fire.

18:48And it's very likely that one of them will at some point slap it out of my hand or say, "Oh, let me see." And, you know, then this event, which is supposed to be a holy event, turns into a chas v'shalom tragedy. So, it's better to be safe than sorry. But this has to be done once the sun goes down, as it says, 20 minutes after sunset, and it can be done throughout the night. In fact, it can be done throughout the whole holiday. What does that mean? If you didn't get home in time, you have work and you didn't get home till, let's say, an hour, two hours, or three hours after sunset, you have to go check for chametz at that moment. It's not that just because you didn't do it exactly after sunset, you don't do it. No, no, no. You have to do it as soon as you get a chance. Ideally, you would do it 20 minutes after sunset. But if you didn't get a chance to, for whatever reason or another, you do it at the first chance that you have an opportunity. You're not allowed to learn Torah. You're not allowed to have a meal. You're not allowed to do anything else until you check the chametz. You have to go check the chametz. So, this is done at night. Now,

20:01I'm not going to go over all the details, because that would simply take too much time, but fast forward, what if somebody forgot to check chametz? Forgot to check the chametz. He can do the checking of the chametz when? Immediately the next day. Let's say you fell asleep. You're, I don't know, one of these bears that falls asleep and can't wake up. So you fell asleep at 6 o'clock in the afternoon, and you woke up the next day at 6 o'clock in the morning. or 10 a.m., whenever you woke up, immediately you go check for chametz. Go check for chametz. So that's another thing: you're not allowed to eat, as I said, you're not allowed to do anything. You're not even allowed to study Torah until you check for the chametz. So... After that, after you check for chametz, women can sit over here, guys can sit over there. We'll go over a few halachot, the laws for Pesach, briefly, and then we'll go over some other interesting stories. If you're extremely tired, you worked really hard, you have one of these jobs, it's a night job, and you're really, really tired, and you know that if you're going to go check for chametz, most likely you can't see right, you can't see left, and you're not really going to take it seriously.

21:23So if you're a responsible person and you have somebody to back you up, as far as somebody to wake you up, you can take a short nap for a half hour before you go check your chametz. That way the chametz is actually done the right way. Now, before beginning the search, a person has to make a blessing. So this blessing is what sanctifies this ma'aseh, where you're not just looking for a key in your house, you're actually doing something holy. This is part of serving HaKadosh Baruch Hu. You're forbidden to speak after saying the blessing, but if somebody spoke in the middle of searching for the chametz, it's not the end of the world. The point is to remain focused. To remain focused, on searching for the chametz and not treat it like it's just nothing. You're really looking for the chametz. Aside from the 10 pieces that your wife hid in the house, make sure to hide them in a plastic bag and also make them small pieces. Don't hide a whole loaf of bread or a whole pita, only pieces the size of an olive. Small pieces where even if you...

22:48don't find it, which happens sometimes, that you forgot and she forgot. It happens that technically it's still not considered something that is considered a meal. So, as far as the chametz, as I said, make sure that you take it seriously. You're not only looking for the 10 pieces, you're also looking for real chametz. you are allowed to, even though you're using a flashlight, you don't have to make the house dark. Some people think that you have to make the house dark, but you don't. In fact, you shouldn't. You still need to use a light, either a candle or a flashlight, but you don't need to make the house dark. In fact, you shouldn't because you're supposed to see everything clearly and know where the chametz is. If somebody started searching for the chametz without reciting the blessing, he could still recite the blessing at any time as long as he has not completed the search. We don't say the blessing of Shehecheyanu for the mitzvah of searching for the chametz. So that's not what we do. Now, if you have, let's say for example, a house and you have a garage,

24:15It's one blessing for both. Same thing if you have a house and you have a car. A house, garage, and a car—one blessing for all of them. As soon as you finish the house, go and search your car. Your car is considered, even if you're not going to use the car the whole Chag, go search your car for chametz. I would advise you to get your car washed and cleaned before the holiday just to keep it safe. Plus, it's... Good to do anyway. Once in a while. Now, if you know that you're not going to be home in time to search for the chametz, your wife can do it for you. Your wife can do it for you. Ken, Ken, come in. Come on.

25:16A lot of these things are not for this generation, like using fats and oils for the lamp; it's not relevant for our generation, so we're not going to go over that. I don't believe any of you guys are gabbaim for synagogues, right? Because it's not relevant, but if you are gabbaim for a synagogue, meaning you're in charge of cleaning the synagogue and so on, if you're the one that's going to go search for chametz in a synagogue, you don't do a blessing. You don't do a blessing because you use the blessing that you already did for your house, for the synagogue. Now, moving on. After completing the search for chametz, everyone must declare null and void any chametz remaining in their possession that they are not aware of. Hence, you have to remember the one that you’re not aware of. We do this twice during the holiday. There are two blessings, there are two times that you make a statement that this chametz that you haven't found, that you don't know of, is void. Null and void, you do it twice. One, after you finish checking for chametz at night, and the second time after you burn the chametz that you took to go burn the next morning at the synagogue, or if you're burning it yourself in the backyard.

26:45So, you do it twice. Now, that blessing, you have to do it in a language that you understand 100%. Don't do it in Hebrew if you don't understand what you're saying. Why? Because you're declaring a statement. So, if you're declaring a statement in a language that you don't understand, then the statement doesn't actually mean anything to you. Hashem doesn't care about the sounds. He cares about what you're actually saying. So even though He knows what you're saying, regardless of what language you say it in, you need to know what you're saying. So, you make this blessing twice. There's a technicality, like I said, you have to do it twice. As far as our sages instituted, it's necessary to declare the Bittul Chametz two times, once immediately after the search and once in the morning before the final burning of the Chametz. But a person should not rely on, let's say for example, if he knows he's going to go to synagogue the next day.

28:02It's like, why should I do it twice? I'm going to do the blessing tomorrow. Why should I do it twice? Don't rely on that. Do it twice like you're supposed to. Now, following the search, after completing the search, a person has to declare Bitul Chametz and make it hefker. Meaning that any chametz that you have that's still left in your house, in your possession, you are saying that this chametz is considered dust. It's not something that you're ever going to be allowed to eat. So if, let's say, for example, you left some chocolate bar in your house that's chametz, and you forgot it's in a closet that you don't go into often, and you didn't do this bitul chametz, if you didn't do this bitul chametz after Pesach, that chocolate bar you have to throw it in the garbage. You can't use it, even if it's closed and everything. Unless, the only time you're allowed to use chametz that stayed in your house after the holidays if you sold it, if you sold it to a goy. Which, like I told you, you could do in most synagogues. The rabbi usually has forms that you fill out to sell your chametz. You have to just simply tell him what your name is,

29:13Where is the location of this chametz in your house? So you have to have a designated location for this chametz in your house—a closet, a room, a garage, wherever it is—a place that you and the rest of your family are not going to enter the whole holiday. You should put some type of either lock or a rope or something to symbolize this is a place, do not enter. You don't have to become a police officer and put the yellow tape or anything, but... You know, it doesn't need to look like a murder scene, but the point is that you should know that you're not allowed to go there, and your kids should know also. Not just by memory, but there should be something visual. Some rope, something. Chametz that you sell, which we're going to get into in a second about what to sell, because a lot of people are making a very serious mistake in regards to selling chametz. That chametz that you sold, you're selling it for the holiday. After the holiday, in essence, you buy it back. This is really all a formality, because most of the time, that guy that bought the chametz from you, the Arab or the Christian or whoever bought the chametz from you, he's not coming to your house in the middle of the week saying, listen, I want to go in my closet and get the food.

30:25Not that he should, he should, because technically it says, but he's not usually. But anyway, you can do it at every shul. Fill out a little form and sell the chametz that way. If your shul doesn't have it, or whatever the case is, you can do it online. Now, you could do it online. I already sent the link to this website that has it. We'll try to do it ourselves next year, but for this year, there's a reliable website that I already told people about. You go there, you fill out the form, you tell them where the chametz is located in your house, your name, and you give a little bit of tzedakah. Don't be cheap. People, you know, don't live on money. Whatever, you give $10, $20, whatever it is, they're doing you a favor. At the very least, you should give them some tzedakah. Don't worry, we do not get a commission, and I don't even think they know we're recommending them. But the point is that generosity is one of the middot of a Jew. If you're not generous, you should question whether you're really Jewish. Now, as far as the next part, following the search, you have to go to the next step, which is declaring it to be hefker.

31:42The actual declaration itself, what the blessing is, is as follows: Any leavened food or leavening in my possession that I have not seen and not destroyed is hereby considered null and like the dust on the ground. That's the exact language. That's what you say to make this chametz that's in your house garbage, unless you sold it. If you sold it, it's not garbage. These are two different things. The stuff you sold is not null and void. The stuff you sold is still valid; you just don't own it. A non-Jew owns it. You understand? The stuff that you're not selling, in your garbage can, for example, you threw out some garbage, and the garbage people didn't come yet. or there's some stuff you forgot in some closet, or in some shirt, or in some jacket, or it's somewhere, that stuff that you didn't see, you didn't get to yet, you're declaring this null and void. You're declaring that this is dust. Meaning that even if you found it, you would simply look at it as dust. It's worth nothing. You wouldn't eat it, you wouldn't sell it, you wouldn't do anything with it. This declaration must be said in a language that a person understands, so that the person means what he says to nullify the chametz.

32:58and to consider it worthless. If someone reads the text in Aramaic or Hebrew and does not understand the significance of the words to nullify the chametz, and he thinks that this is the same prayer, he does not fulfill the mitzvah of Bittul Chametz. Even if he recites it in Hebrew, it does not count if he does not understand the words. He must declare it again in the language that he understands. Owning chametz on Pesach is karet. It's the worst sin in the Torah. It's like chilul Shabbat, or being with a nidah. Anytime a woman is not married and doesn't go to a mikveh, she's considered a niddah. So when a man is intimate with a woman out of marriage, that's considered a sin of karet. So when reciting the declaration of Bittul Chametz during the daytime, which is the next morning, the correct text is slightly different. What is it? Any chametz or se'or in my possession, whether or not I have seen it, and whether or not I have destroyed it, should be considered null and like the dust on the ground.

34:00So here, the second day, the next morning, it's slightly different because here you're saying, in the first night, you're in essence saying that it's not including whether or not you've seen it and whether or not you've destroyed it. Because you're assuming that you know everything. In the second one, you're mentioning whether or not I destroyed it. Why? There's a couple of reasons. Number one, in case you missed something, but not in the places that you thought of. Why? Because you're going to go fulfill another mitzvah on Friday morning, which is to burn the chametz. Burning the chametz is a mitzvah from the Torah. So, burning the chametz, you need to do. You don't have to burn, you know, a truckload of chametz. Take, I don't know, a pita, and a little bit of something. You can make a shawarma sandwich and burn it if you want. I don't know. Make something, take it, and burn it. That's a mitzvah of its own. It's a mitzvah of its own to do it. And a mitzvah, each mitzvah in the Torah, there's an endless amount of reward. As simple as it sounds, trust me when I tell you, you'll regret it if you don't do this mitzvah once you get to Olam HaBa. You’ll realize how big the reward is for burning a little pita. Now,

35:02Here is the issue. What's the issue? Sometimes people burn, let's say, a big piece of challah. And the challah, or the big piece of bread, doesn't burn completely. The outside burns, but the inside is still okay. The inside is still okay. That's what you're saying here. Even the inside that wasn't burned completely, now it wasn't burned. If it's burned, obviously it's automatically null and void. It's worthless. No one's going to eat it. It's burnt. But the stuff that's left, let's say a dog finds it, it's not mine. It's dust. Somebody else's. So it's garbage. So that's in essence what you're saying. Men and women are equally obligated to fulfill the mitzvah of destroying the chametz and ridding it from their possessions. If the homeowner is away from home, he can still declare bitul chametz wherever he may be. You don't have to be at home. So let's say you're traveling. You're traveling, you're going somewhere, you're going to one of these Pesach vacations. Hopefully it's a kosher one. you still do bitul chametz. Everybody does bitul chametz. If the homeowner is away from home, and his wife is unsure whether he will remember to declare bitul chametz, or in any case, when a homeowner is too involved with other pursuits to declare it, his wife can make the daytime declaration on his behalf. Even if the homeowner did not instruct her to do this, she may do it nevertheless. Usually, when a woman does a mitzvah that's not her obligation, she has to

36:26ask her husband for permission. This is not one of those cases. For example, if a woman wants to give tzedakah, if it's a small amount of money, then there's no problem. But if it's a large amount of money, she actually has to ask permission from the husband. The reason why is because when he signed the ketubah, everything that's owned by her is owned by him. Not the opposite. What's owned by her is the ketubah if there's a divorce, chas v'shalom. But in essence, all of the money, all the possessions are owned by the husband. So if she wants to give a large part of technically his possessions, she has to ask for permission. Or else it's considered gezel. It's considered she stole. So women need to know this, because I know women tend to be much more generous than you cheap guys. But please, please, don't make a sin in the way of a mitzvah. Ask your husband for permission. If you're going to send me a million or two million dollars, just ask for permission. If not, you can send him, then I'll ask for permission. So, now, if someone did not conduct the search for chametz on the evening of the 14th, he must do so during the day, like we said. Even if someone went through the entire Pesach without conducting any search, he must conduct the search after Pesach to ensure that he will not benefit from any chametz that was left in his possession during Pesach, since it is now forbidden forever. So, if you didn't look for it, and then...

37:54The holiday already started; you can do it then. And anything you find, you throw out, you destroy, you have to burn it. Unless it's Shabbat or a holiday, you have to burn it. But let's say you forgot to look for it before the holiday. You forgot to look for it during the holiday. Pretty much you went on a winter nap like a bear, and you woke up after the holiday and you say, "Oh wait, I have chametz in my house." You're not allowed to use any of that chametz. You have to find all of it and destroy it. You can't sell it. So if someone plans a trip away from home for the entire festival of Pesach, and he signs a contract through a competent rabbi to sell his entire home and all the chametz in it to a non-Jew, he nevertheless must still conduct the search for chametz. But in practice, we can be lenient. It's not necessary to conduct the search for it if one is arranging that his home is going to be sold to a non-Jew. Now, if it's sold to a Jew, then the opinion is that you still need to do it. If the Jew is going to come, you know, within time to give you time to clean the house. If, let's say, the Jew is coming to your house a week, two weeks, three weeks before the chag, then you can leave the responsibility to him. Leave the responsibility to him.

39:14Rental houses, if you're going to rent your house, I'm assuming you know what the halachot are. If you don't know, then contact me after, because there are a few small details you need to know. Now, as far as a non-Jew's chametz, what if you have, let's say, for example, on Chol HaMoed, something happens, and you need someone to come to your house and fix something. You know, things happen, especially when you have guests. Guests are very, very good at breaking your stuff. They're very good; they're experts. So guests come to your house, and they break your faucet, they break your shower, they break your head, they break stuff. And so what happens? You have to bring somebody to come work for you, right, to do something. And that person, if he has, let's say, a few hours' job in your house, at some point he has to eat. Don't, hey, no, no, no, go, go, shake it, hey, hey, hey, go, go. No, don't do that. That's Chilul Hashem. That's Chilul Hashem. He can eat his chametz in your house even. He can eat his chametz in your house. In practice, it's better if he eats it elsewhere, but if he eats it in your house, it's not a problem. It's not a problem. Don't start yelling at people and make a big Chilul Hashem. No, no, yeah. Don't do that. He can eat. Treat him respectfully. He's helping you. The Chafetz Chaim says you're supposed to thank the clerk that's selling you food at the store as if she just saved your life, as if he just saved your life. Why? Because technically, the food, if you don't eat it, you're going to die.

40:39Needless to say, someone that's fixing something in your house and doing you a favor, even if you're paying them, should be treated with respect. So, a person needs to treat people with respect, regardless of whether they're a Jew or non-Jew. And in regards to them having chametz, that's not your problem. Ideally, you want them to be in a specific area in the house and not be like a child, you know, with their crumbs all over your house. But if they bring chametz, it's not the end of the world. Obviously, make sure it's not in contact with your food, but I'm assuming you guys know that. Cigarettes: anyone that's still addicted to cigarettes and smokes cigarettes, you are technically allowed to smoke cigarettes on Pesach. They're not considered chametz. Even if the paper wrappers were glued together with paste from chametz material, you're still allowed to smoke. Generally, you're not allowed to smoke at all because it's... hurt your body and you're not allowed to hurt your body intentionally, but there is a leniency for people who are already addicted, allowing them to smoke. It's not two sins. It's a sin to smoke, but it's not an additional sin to smoke on Chol HaMoed. If you don't smoke, you're not allowed to start because it is bad for you.

42:01Now, chametz on the day before Pesach. The Torah makes chametz forbidden from midday on the 14th of Nisan. Midday means exactly halfway between dawn and dusk. Our sages instituted a rule that it's forbidden to eat chametz two seasonal hours earlier than midday. I already told you this part. Just look at the clocks; you'll see exactly when you're not allowed to eat chametz. It's going to be on Friday morning, probably somewhere around 10 o'clock. Usually, most people stop eating chametz already the night before. But if you have, I don't know, a nice sandwich that you want the next morning, no problem, just make sure it's before that time. Why? Because if you eat the sandwich one second after you're not allowed, that's Issur Karet. It's no different than Chilul Shabbat. It's no different than being with a married woman that's not your wife. It's no different than idol worship. It's no different. It's Karet. You understand? Pesach is not one of those holidays you joke around with.

43:02it's not that hard of a holiday to begin with because today in our generation you have to really hate God not to keep Pesach. Because there's so much delicious food that's kosher for Pesach. Honestly, I went to the store and I saw the food and I said, why don't they sell this stuff all year round? Seriously, some of the food on Pesach is better than the rest of the year. But anyway, that's maybe just me. It's forbidden to engage in any other task once the time has come to burn the chametz. Meaning that When you wake up in the morning, you pray, you put on tefillin. After that, you go burn the chametz. Why? You don't have to do anything else. You don't have to learn, you don't have to write, you don't have to clean, you don't have to do anything else. You have to go burn the chametz. You have to go burn the chametz. That's also another mitzvah. What if you find chametz during Pesach or during Chol HaMoed? If you find it, you should immediately remove it from the premises. if it's during Pesach itself, which this year falls on Shabbat, you're not allowed to burn it, obviously, because you're not allowed to light fire. But if it's during Chol HaMoed, you would destroy it. You would burn the chametz. You would burn the chametz if you find it on Chol HaMoed. Now, when it comes to chametz...

44:26This is not a part we're going to go over in too much detail because it'll just take too much time, and I really want to get to the second part of the shiur. We're already over time, but when it comes to chametz, if, let's say, a small piece of chametz somehow shows up in the house, and your kid decides to throw it into your pot... you decide to throw it into your pot. If it's during Pesach, you have to throw out the whole thing, and you can't use the pot anymore. If this food was cooked, let's say, tomorrow, before the Chag, if it's before the Chag, then you can just remove it, and the food's allowed. Before Pesach, as long as there's 60 times more kosher for Pesach food than there is chametz, It's allowed to eat. You just remove it and move forward. During Pesach, even if it's a thousand times more, it doesn't matter. It's all forbidden, including the pot itself. So you have to be careful with that. I highly doubt your kids are throwing chametz into your pots, but just to scare you a little bit, it's good. Okay?

45:53If someone cooked rice or chicken during Pesach and then discovered a kernel of wheat in the food, obviously this is chametz. He has to carefully examine and suspect the kernel. If it's at all cracked or split, that's proof that the kernel has become chametz and the entire pot of food is forbidden, even if its contents are far more than 60 times the volume. In essence, the same exact thing I just told you, but this is even if it's a grain. Since this mixture took place during Pesach, the chametz cannot be nullified in any mixture. The kernel of wheat itself must be burned immediately. The pot in which the food was cooked cannot be used. One must wait until 24 hours have passed since the food was cooked and then purge the pot to render it kosher for Pesach. You have to burn it. In essence, you put it away until after the holiday, most likely. If it's extremely urgent, then it's possible to be lenient and purge the pot before 24 hours have passed. But either way, you have to purge, you have to burn it. The point is, if you have a little mishap, then this is the solution for it. Now, if the kernel of wheat that was discovered was not cracked at all, which means that it's safek chametz, which means that it may or may not be chametz,

47:18then the kernel itself must be burned up, but the rest of the food may be eaten if its volume is greater than 60 times the kernel. So if it's not, but this is assuming a kernel, I don't think any of you live on a farm with these kernels, but the point is, you get my point. Ashkenazi Jews, on the other hand, have a custom of being much more stringent in this case, where they forbid the food, even in this case, even if the kernel is not open at all. Brothers Ashkenazim have certain things that they're much more stringent about, and bracha will come to them because of it. But if you're Sefardi, you keep Sefardi customs. If you're a woman who was born into an Ashkenazi family but married a Sefardi, you keep Sefardi customs. You don't have two halachic standards in one house. Wife becomes what the husband is. The husband doesn't become what the wife is, even if he likes it. He doesn't become what the wife is unless he wants to change, in which case he has to go to his rabbi and ask for permission. That's a different story altogether. It's perfectly permissible during Pesach to drink tap water provided by the national company Mekorot or regular national water anywhere else. Why is this an issue? Why is getting water from the faucet an issue? Because people throw their waste in the water.

48:39And technically, part of the waste is chametz. So technically, there could be chametz in the water. But you're still allowed to drink it. The reason why is because the Chachamim looked into how the water works. We don't just make halachot just because we like it and because we need it. They looked into how the water works and they realized that the water does two things. Number one, the water goes through an enormous amount of filtering before it ever arrives in your house. So that already eliminates virtually all of the chametz that's in it, or at least eliminates any of the taste that the chametz has. And the second thing is, let's say, for example, in a smaller country like Israel, where most of the water comes from the Kineret, the water that actually arrives at your house during the holidays is most likely not the same water that's in the Kinneret at that time. Why? Because the stuff that has arrived at your house probably has gone through the filtering system for a few days already before it arrived at your house. The stuff that's being, let's say, contaminated with chametz during the holiday is not arriving at anybody's house anytime soon. So, and there's other reasons also the Chachamim went into. Point is, tap water is perfectly fine to drink. Now, if there is a chametz that is actually disgusting, meaning like a pill, medicine,

49:59something like that. It's a non-kosher ingredient, and it's added to kosher food. But if that ingredient detracts from the quality of the food, you are allowed to use it. So you're perfectly allowed to use medicine. In fact, the Yalkut Yosef here says that it's a sin according to the Torah for you not to take your medicine. during the holiday, assuming that the medicine doesn't have a good taste. Because sometimes people, especially for little kids or sometimes other people, get these jelly beans that are actually vitamins or medicine. You should not take those unless they're kosher. But other things, like painkillers, antibiotics, and the rest of the stuff that tastes like poison, that stuff you're allowed to take with no problem. ...uh, because you're supposed to obviously take care of yourself. What about on Yom Kippur? It depends on the degree of sickness you have, but right now we'll focus on Pesach. When you get to Yom Kippur, it's permissible to use cosmetics on Pesach even if their ingredients include...

51:12byproducts, since the cosmetics are inedible even to dogs. So you're allowed to put makeup, but again, women, remember, you're allowed to put makeup, but not paint your face. Okay? You're allowed to put makeup, you want to put a little bit of blush, there's no problem with it. But women who walk around with enough makeup to create a new Mona Lisa, that's not allowed the whole year. You're not allowed to walk around and have cars stopping because they think your lips are a stop sign. That you're not allowed to do. Okay, the whole year. Buy a little bit of makeup, there's no problem. Even in the Torah, it talks about women putting makeup on. But again, remember, modesty is a very important thing. Even if you want to be beautiful to your husband, it doesn't mean, you know, the Torah doesn't say you have to be ugly. You have to be pretty. But pretty has its limits. There are certain people that are pretty and certain people that just want attention. If someone has become ill and his entire body aches from illness, it's permissible for him to take painkillers, pain relievers, in the form of tablets or caplets on Pesach, even if they contain wheat, wheat starch that's chametz. This is even if he's not dangerously ill, which during Yom Kippur, by the way, would have to be dangerously ill. If someone is genuinely ill on Pesach, it's forbidden for him to use tablets that have a pleasant flavor.

52:38So he has to, but if his medicine has a pleasant flavor and he does not have the opportunity to find something that doesn't, then he has to take it with something that's disgusting to ruin the flavor. One must either destroy the chametz or sell it to a non-Jew through the local rabbinate who arranges the transaction to be halachically valid. If he does neither of these steps, the chametz left on his premises becomes completely forbidden. if it was chametz, now this will lead me to my next point. As far as selling the chametz to the non-Jew, you only sell the food, not the utensils, not the pots and pans, not the forks and knives, not the closet. You don't sell that stuff. If you make the mistake of selling the pots and pans, then you have yourself a little bit of a burden you put on yourself. What is that burden? As soon as the holiday is over, you have to take everything to the mikveh. Why? Once the utensils are owned by a non-Jew, a Jew has to take them to a mikveh before he uses them again. So even though the non-Jew never actually took possession of them, he never took them in his house, never cooked his shrimp in it, still, he technically owned it, you have to go take it to the mikveh. So don't sell your pots and pans, don't sell your forks and knives, only food. Only food, and like I said, sell food that is really sellable. Don't sell them a half a piece of pizza that you didn't eat. Don't sell them that.

53:53use them again. So even though the non-Jew never actually took possession of them, he never took them in his house, never cooked his shrimp in it, still, he technically owned it, you have to go take it to the mikveh. So don't sell your pots and pans, don't sell your forks and knives, only food. Only food, and like I said, sell food that is really sellable. Don't sell them half a piece of pizza that you didn't eat. Don't sell them that. When selling one's chametz to a non-Jew through an agency or rabbi, one should not include one's kitchen utensils. So, up to here is, I think, enough for you to understand that you have a little bit of a responsibility. Second thing is, when it comes to the seder, there's a couple of responsibilities that you have. Responsibility number one is, is, no matter what, and no matter how many annoying people attend your seder, even if the annoying person is you, do not get angry. Don't get angry. Why? If you get angry, you ruin the whole mitzvah. Second thing is, the biggest and most important mission that you have

55:08biggest and most important obligation you have during Pesach, during the Seder, is to teach the children about what happened, which includes also teaching yourself. Now, don't torture your kids until 3 o'clock in the morning, unless they're able to do it. But, you know, if let's say you have young kids, 10, 11, 12-year-old kids, teach until about, you know, 12 o'clock at night, send them to go to sleep, and you yourself continue to study as much as you can. As much as you can. but the point is that you have to make sure that you're teaching the kids the story of Pesach, the Exodus, and so on. If you have guests, they can listen too, but don't spend more time on your guests than your kids. Your kids are more important during this day. That's the biggest mitzvah to set up. Now, if you have, let's say, for example, your parents or your wife's parents or your husband's parents over, you don't want to disrespect them, then involve them in the story. Involve them in the story, and if they're decent human beings, they'll appreciate it and be part of it, and they'll want you to teach the kids also. If they're not such nice people and they want all the attention in the world, then I don't know. I ask you why you invited them in the first place, but I guess you had to. Maybe next time you should think twice before inviting them.

56:28But anyway, if you already invited them or your wife forced you to invite them, then just go back and forth. Go back and forth and do that. Now, with all this being said, we have now the Seder. The Seder is a beautiful time to eat, a beautiful time to pray, a beautiful time to honor Hashem's name, talk about the Exodus, and so on. Then after that, you have Chol HaMoed. Chol HaMoed is not a time for you to go back to work, like most people think. You're not allowed to go back to work unless avoiding work will cause you to lose. What does lose mean? Lose does not mean not gain. So if you don't go to work, that means they're not going to pay you. That's not considered a loss. That just means you didn't gain. A loss means if you don't go to work, they'll fire you. Because that means you'll lose future income. That's a loss. A loss means that if you don't go, your client is going to leave you. He's going to go somewhere else. You're going to lose a client. Those are the only conditions that would make it allowed for you to go to work during Chol HaMoed. But if you go to work on Chol HaMoed when you don't have to, when it's not a loss, you should know. I don't know if you heard this before. Halacha is, he has no share of the world to come. He loses Olam Haba.

57:58To that extent. It's horrible. Not like, oh, it's small, no big deal. Now, what if your job is a mitzvah? I'll answer your question in a second. What if your job is a mitzvah? Let's say you work for a synagogue, or you work for B'ezrat Hashem, or you work for, I don't know, you know, Rav Mizrachi or something. You work for some type of mitzvah, then it's a mitzvah to work. Why? Because your job is a mitzvah. Your job is a mitzvah; you're allowed to do mitzvot. It's good to do mitzvot. But if your job is, you work for UPS, you work for the water company, you work for Gehenom, I don't know who you work for, you have to take the time off unless they will fire you. Unless they will fire you. Go ahead, what's your question? Well, assuming if they go to Jewish school, then there's no school. But if they go to a non-Jewish school, a public school, they should technically not go to that school ever. Uh, but, uh, you know, and the reason why, I'll tell you why, I'll tell you why, because when you go to a public school, like I went to public school...

59:06And I was a very curious kid. I had a lot of questions in my life. And I'm one of those annoying people that has to get an answer. So one day, yeah, you know, a lot of people ask questions, but if you don't have an answer five minutes later, they have a different question. It's not really important; they just ask for the sake of asking. I'm one of those people who, if I ask a question, I'm not letting it go until I find an answer. Oh, I have certain questions from 20 years ago that I'll still ask. I have to. I have all my questions answered, but the point is that I was one of those kids. So one day I went to school. I think I was maybe in fifth or sixth grade, something like that. And my teacher told me, "Oh, look in the science book, this is the monkey. That's where we came from." So I came home to my mom. I'm like, "Ima, you know you're really a monkey?" She wanted to give me a slap. Oh, what? Monkey! No, no, my teacher said it. My teacher said you're really a monkey. What? Who's his teacher? What are you teaching in the school? I said, it's in the book. I saw it in the book. It's a garbage school. I said, Ima, where are the dinosaurs in the Torah? Where are the dinosaurs in the Torah? My mom, G-d bless her, she didn't learn Torah and science. Yes.

1:00:25So she's like, I don't know whether there are dinosaurs in the Torah. I'm like, what do you mean? How do you not know? I was a little kid. I didn't understand how a grown-up didn't know this. It bothered me to no end. Because I, as a kid, viewed adults as, like, all-knowing, like an oracle or something. So, like, when I asked my mom, “Where are dinosaurs in the Torah?” and she didn't know, it bothered me. And I kept, you know, like, annoying her about it. Every day I would ask her, “Where are dinosaurs?” She goes, “I don't know where the dinosaurs are. Ask the rabbi where the dinosaurs are. Ask this morah (teacher) of yours.” So, poor lady, I tortured her out of her skin with all my questions. But then I would ask these questions. So, why am I mentioning this funny story to you? It's because when you go to a secular school, you go to a public school, they're going to teach you a lot of things that are not only against the Torah, they're against logic. But you, as a young person, or your kids, are not going to know it's against the Torah and against logic, and they're simply going to take it at face value. I'll give you another example.

1:01:27Most people, Jewish people, are very big fans of Zionism. Very, you know, American Jews love Zionism. There are streets in Eretz Yisrael called Herzl Street. You know, they sell statues in different parts of Eretz Yisrael, of Herzl, of Ben-Gurion, all of these Zionists. Now, some of these people that are Zionists, ...are religious. And even they don't know. I went to school, and I studied Zionism. I attended Binghamton University, and I studied Zionism. One of the books we had to read for this class, I think, was something in the neighborhood of 900 to 1,000 pages. A big book. I read the book. Not a single negative word about Zionism. They're all great people. They were this. They were that. Wonderful things... Now, after I grew up, I liked it, but after I grew up and I started looking into it a little bit more through independent study, I found out something different. What I found out, I found out a story I'm going to tell you now. Now, I told you guys a lot of things about Zionism; I'm going to tell you something new now. One of the main people during the time of the beginning of modern-day Israel was a person by the name of Yoel Brand.

1:02:55Brandt. You can go to Wikipedia, you can find out what I'm about to tell you. Yoel Brandt was an avid Zionist. He loved Zionism. He thought this is it. He wasn't exactly a religious person. But he seemed like a decent human being. Now, Yoel Brandt, what did he want? He wanted to have modern-day Israel. He wanted to help Jewish people. Like what we all think that Zionism wanted, because they were all Jews also, technically. Yoel Brandt one day had a very interesting conversation with Adolf Eichmann, yimach shemo v'zichro. In essence, second in command aside from Adolf Hitler. This is in May of 1944, right towards the end of the war. Adolf Eichmann told them, "Listen, we need supplies. We need food, we need trucks, we need medicine, and we're willing to give you one million Jews in trade for these 10,000 trucks and the supplies."

1:04:15Now, the Zionists were full of money. There was no end to the amount of money they had. They all had government support, donor support. There was no end to the money. It's not like they didn't have the money. And now everybody's crying, "Why should we get a State of Israel? We should get a State of Israel. Why should we get a State of Israel? Why, why, why?" Because they're killing us in the street. They're killing us in the concentration camps. They're killing us everywhere. So, we should get a state, right? That's what they said. So now, when Adolf Eichmann, the Satan himself, said, "Listen, by the way, you can save a million people..." Jews right now. We killed 5 million. There's 1 million left. You could save them. It's a good deal, no? Would you save them? You'd save them, right? You're not going to go kill them. What are you going to get? Some trucks? Get some trucks. What are you going to get? Some medicine? Get some medicine. You get some money? Give some money. So, Brant goes to Ben-Gurion. Brant goes to the rest of the gershayim that run Zionism. He tells them, "Okay, we have a deal on the table to save our brothers and sisters. One million Jews. One million Jews, no jokes." It's quoted that Ben-Gurion says, "I'd rather have one healthy Jew than these million sick people." He wasn't a big fan.

1:05:36But he didn't want to tell Brant. Because Brant was one of those people who was very passionate. He believed in what he was doing. So they didn't want to tell him. But they had a vote. Ben-Gurion and his friends had a vote. And what did they vote? They all voted on what Ben-Gurion said. What? The heck with them. The heck with them. But we can't tell Brant. So what are we going to do? Brant is passionate about it; he wants to save these people. He's already had back-and-forth meetings with Eichmann. What are we going to do? Okay, tell Brant to go to Aleppo, go to Syria, and meet with the Jewish Agency over there. They're going to give him the money. They're going to give him everything, and he'll close the deal over there. That's what they did. They sent him to Aleppo. Immediately as he got there, he got arrested and stayed in jail for a while. And guess what happened? The last million... were all murdered in cold blood. Show me one Zionist book that shows this story. Now, this was written in his book, you can find it yourself, published in 1958, called "The Advocate for the Dead." He wrote a book disclosing this whole thing.

1:06:58...and publicizing how wicked these people are. And if there was any question about it, maybe they didn't believe them, that they're going to get the money, they're going to give the people, all of that, all of those details were already worked out. Eichmann was telling them, listen, you give us 10% of the money, we'll give you 10% of the people. I'll free 100,000 people right now... I free 100,000 people, you give me another 10%. I free another 100,000 people. So there's no like, oh, we're scared, we're going to give them the money, they're going to kill them anyway. You have an opportunity to save a million of our brothers and sisters, but they decided to kill them. Why? Because the Zionists were the biggest anti-Semites that ever lived, even more than Hitler himself. That's what they don't teach you in school. That's what they're not going to teach you in most places. And most people today that are Zionists don't actually know what Zionism is. Now, you're supposed to be pro-Israel because our brothers and sisters live there. We have eight, nine million Jews living there. You're supposed to be pro-Israel. But that does not mean you're a Zionist. It just means you love Jews. Zionism, on the other hand, which is predominantly a good part of the government and the people on the left,

1:08:13Liberal side, those people are as evil as can be. When we pray every day during Amidah for certain wicked people to die, that's what we have coming on. They're part of those people. People that are what I just described. Now, as far as this story, you can find it on Wikipedia, you can find it on the internet, and... You can find it in his book. It was actually translated into English if you want to read it. I mean, it's one of the most tragic stories that have happened in probably the last 2,000 years. In a couple of months, they killed the last million people. So, now, why do I tell you this sad story? Because this sad story is just a perfect example of how somebody that you think is your friend, somebody that you think is your brother, is really an enemy. You understand? Needless to say, education from non-kosher sources, whether it be a non-kosher university,

1:09:24or public school, or a Christian teacher, you cannot rely on people. You have to always rely on our Torah, and you have to always rely on kosher people. Even books that say that they're talking about David HaMelech, like we talked about last night, or they say they're talking about Moshe Rabbeinu. If it was not written by a kosher person, you're not allowed to read it. How do you know? Sometimes the book says, Rabbi so-and-so. But it's still not kosher. Why? Because that Rabbi so-and-so, if you look him up, he's a Conservative or a Reform rabbi. So he's not a reliable source. So if you buy from specific publishing houses like Feldheim, Mesorah, ArtScroll, and a few others, then you have no problem there. They do the research themselves. But if you're buying your book, and it has Rabbi so-and-so, but it comes from an unknown, or like Penguin, the publishing house Penguin, that also publishes other secular books, you cannot assume that it's a kosher source. You can't assume it's not kosher, but most likely it's not. Because if it were kosher, there would be a kosher publishing house that would publish it. The point is that you have to be very, very careful with the information that enters your brain.