PeSach Halachot When It Begins Motzei Shabbat 2025/5785

0:02I want to go over a little bit of the halachot today because I don't know what the schedule is going to be, especially as things are getting really, really busy right now. The days are getting longer, and the burden is getting bigger. I don't know what the schedule is going to be before Pesach and so on. So, because this year's Pesach is different than it typically is, if a person does not learn the halachot of Pesach, they are almost guaranteed that they're going to be eating chametz on this Pesach coming up. The reason why is because, unlike other years... where Pesach, Passover, is usually during a weekday. This year, Pesach begins on Motzei Shabbat, which creates a lot of confusion for people as far as burning the chametz, but at the same time eating chametz, and so on and so forth. So we'll go briefly into a few things.

1:06I'll try to be as quick as possible, but again, I highly recommend you take notes. If you're not able to keep up, then simply watch this again tomorrow and take down the notes. Because, again, a person who eats chametz, a Jew who eats chametz on Pesach, is liable to the punishment of karet. Okay, it's the worst thing in the world, so you have to be careful of what you do. Pesach is not a suggestion or a custom; it is an obligation from the Torah for Am Yisrael to preserve it. There are a few major mitzvot. First and foremost, a lot of the things I'm going to say I learned with my Rav, and much of it is based on the psak from Rav Ovadia Yosef, from Sefer Chazon Ovadia. Chazon Ovadia. But, of course, if you have a different posek, if you're Ashkenazi or Hasidic and so on, then you have to check with your own poskim on some slight changes that may be from time to time. But generally speaking, most of what I'm talking to you is almost certainly for Klal Yisrael. Okay, but for sure for all Sephardic Jews.

2:23Okay, so typically there is Ta'anit Bechorot before Pesach, which is the fast of the firstborn. It is something that we do every year. However, this year, because Pesach... is on Shabbat, on Saturday night. We cannot fast on Shabbat, and we cannot fast on Friday, so some say that you could fast on Thursday, on Thursday night, even though the actual holiday this year starts on Saturday. They say you fast on Thursday, but Rabbi Ovadia Yosef says that since the The fast was moved; it's not typically this way, so technically you don't even need to fast. But Rav Ovadia writes that if you don't want to fast, then simply go listen to someone complete a masechet in the Gemara, as most people do every year, and that will not only be a mitzvah that you're part of, but also absolve you from the fast.

3:43uh, a scheme that ruled that you should fast even though it was moved. The point being is that it would be on Thursday, okay, so you can hear at the absolution from it. But again, for anyone that is sick, pregnant, or just gave birth, or anything like that, you don't need to fast at all. Next thing is in regards to the checking of the chametz. ... put the custom to have one of your family members place ten pieces, smaller than a kazayit, of chametz in different parts of the house, and then you go look for them. uh you put uh the custom is to have one of your family members put ten pieces, smaller than a k'zayit, of chametz in different parts of the house, and then you go look for them.

4:59with a candle, or if it's dangerous, then you can use a flashlight. Some say it's very good to also use a feather to look into different crevices and search for the chametz. Some from a few hundred years ago actually frowned upon this custom of hiding chametz in case a person doesn't find it. But nonetheless, the person that hides it should, if you have a big house, write it on a piece of paper where you hid every single one in case. The family members that are looking for the Chametz cannot find it. But the Bedikat Chametz is part of the mitzvot of Pesach. You have to make a specific blessing on the Bedikat Chametz. You will find that in the Pesach Machzor, which is a specific prayer book for the time of Pesach. So, there's a special prayer that you say. Now, since the actual holiday itself doesn't begin until Saturday, what happens here is really where the confusion lies. Even though you're searching for chametz, you're still technically allowed to eat chametz throughout all of Thursday night, all of Friday, and until Pesach officially begins somewhere around 10 to 11 o'clock a.m. on Saturday morning.

6:26So the reality is that you're looking for chametz, but you're still going to have some chametz left. So what do you do with this chametz? This chametz that you're going to be using to eat Thursday night, Friday, and Shabbat morning... you put it in one part of your house, whether it's going to be a certain section of your kitchen or wherever you want to put it, but it should all be in one place. The rest of the house should already be clean for Pesach, ready for Pesach, but just the utensils, pots, and pans, and food that's still chametz that you're going to be using for those next day and a half should be in one section of the house. Uh, now, until again, uh, Saturday, which again over here, for example, the, uh, the last time to eat chametz is going to be the morning meal, the morning meal of Shabbat, which has to end, uh, here in Florida, in Cooper City, it has to end at 11:20 a.m. Okay, in Israel, on the other hand, where Rabbi Fry is...

7:36It's around 10 a.m., 10:10, 10:15, something like that, so you have to check with the apps that you have or websites based on your zip code. When is the last time to eat chametz on Shabbat? For all of us, it's Shabbat, but just different times depending on where you are in the world. So, which means that, again, you're checking for chametz that's not the one that you're going to be eating during the next day or so. Okay, after that, you have to, on Friday, burn the chametz. So, burn the chametz that you're not going to be eating. Burn the chametz, and this is going to be on Friday morning. And even though you're still allowed, again, you're allowed to eat chametz on Friday night and actually need to eat chametz technically for Shabbat and for Saturday morning, you still have chametz that you're not going to eat. Now, if it is, you know, closed packaging of things, and you want to keep them, then you can sell that chametz. It's completely closed, untouched, and so on. You can sell that chametz. There are different websites or your local rabbi in the community I'm sure has some type of arrangement with a non-Jew that would buy the chametz for the duration of the holiday.

8:59duration of the holiday so you could sell the chametz that's only closed, but if you have chametz that's open, unless it's expensive liquor, you have to throw it out. Don't play games with this. Also, if it's things that are not going to keep because they're going to expire and things like that, again, this is part of the stuff that you burn, and... As part of the burning of the chametz, some communities, most Jewish communities, have a fire, usually in some type of barrel, where everybody throws their chametz in there on Erev Pesach morning, sometime around a little bit before noon. like it would be done in a typical year, morning time, somewhere around a little bit before noon, selling the chametz that you want to keep to use it after. after Pesach, it is ideally to be done on Thursday, but it's okay to sell the chametz this year on Friday, because again, you're technically allowed to eat it until Saturday morning, until Shabbat morning. Ideally, sell it on Thursday, but you can sell it even on Friday. I wouldn't recommend...

10:22Uhh uhh, waiting for the uhh last minute when you're burning the chametz, remember to do the uhh, the blessing. However, when you're selling the chametz, you do that without a bitul blessing. There is no blessing that you're doing as far as the bitul, the cancellation of the chametz that's left, which you do on Shabbat afternoon. Shabbat afternoon is when you do that particular blessing. So now, on Friday, you're allowed to do Melachot because it's not Yom Tov. you're allowed to do melachot because it's not Yom Tov. So you're allowed to do melachot, you know, with cooking, cleaning, whatever it is that you need to do. But again, remember, you're preparing for a long holiday, and it's an important holiday. This is one of the foundations of Judaism. It's not one of those holidays where it's like a custom. You have to be prepared for this.

11:26Now, uh, as far as, uh, a little bit of a reminder for Shabbat, when you are, uh, you know, let's say eating on Friday night And after you finish eating, if you want to wash the dishes with something that's not a sponge, you don't have to wash with a sponge. However, if you have something that has holes in it, like a net, and you want to put soap on it, you're allowed to do so, but that's only if you are going to use these utensils, plates, and so on, on Shabbat. But if you're not going to use them on Shabbat, you're not allowed to wash them on Shabbat. So, for example, if you want to wash things on Friday night, no problem. But after Seudah Shlishit, on a typical Shabbat, you're not allowed to wash the dishes because Shabbat's over. So you're not going to be able to, you know, an hour later or two hours later, use those pots and pans and different things later on. So if you're washing dishes, even if it's in a kosher way, on Shabbat, after Seudah Shlishit, you're violating Shabbat.

12:31Uh, but here you have to remember that, you know, the dishes that you're using on Friday night—unless they are disposable dishes, like plastic dishes that you throw out—can only be washed on Friday to use on Saturday morning. But after the Shabbat morning meal, you're not allowed to wash those dishes or the pots and pans that you had the food in because you're no longer going to be able to use them after that morning meal because they're all full of chametz. Okay, so that's why it is highly recommended not to make dishes like, uh, cholent and other types of dishes that stick to the pots and pans, uh, because you're not going to be able to wash them, you know, for the duration of the, uh, of the holiday because they're chametz. You have to, after the meal on, uh, on Shabbat morning, you have to put away all of the chametz, whatever, uh, bread you still have left.

13:38you have to crumble it into little tiny crumbs, ensuring that all of it is in tiny crumbs, and then dispose of it. Whatever food you have, that's going to be discarded. you, the pots, pans, forks, and knives that aren't plastic: you're not throwing that out. All that stuff you have to put away in a section of your house that you're not going to enter and not going to use for the whole duration of the holiday. So, again, you cannot wash your chametz on Saturday, on Shabbat, because you're not allowed to have it. after that morning meal. And you have to make sure that you remember that you need to find out the exact time that you're no longer allowed to eat chametz and have chametz because you have to not only finish the meal, but you have to put all this stuff away before that time. So if you are, for example, in Israel, 10 o'clock in the morning, uh, then that means that you have to pray morning Netz, you know, six o'clock in the morning prayer. Get home, uh, usually, there's no Kiddush whatsoever in the synagogues this year on Pesach because everybody has to hurry home and have the meal before the time's up and then clean up everything, you know, any chametz that's left, throw it in the garbage.

14:56Any pots, pans, or whatever, put them away. If you disregarded my advice and made yourself cholent in one of these dishes where the food sticks to the pots and pans, whatever you're not able to throw out because it's stuck to the pan, you have to leave it as is and put it in something, like a garbage bag or so on, so there are no bugs in your house. But... The reality is, a lot of people, what they do in this type of time is usually they make either dishes that are not sticky, easily washable, and you can easily empty it out and it's not going to stick to anything, or they make mezonot, like pizza and other types of mezonot for that Saturday morning meal. Now, as far as the... The rest is to make sure that all the melachot are allowed on Friday, but not on Shabbat because it's still Shabbat. So the preparation for the seder, as far as the washing of the maror, you can't do it on Shabbat.

16:09Okay, you have to, you know, clean the maror and the leaves and so on from bugs and so on. You have to do that on Friday. You can't do it on Shabbat because then it would be a Melachah Shabbat called Borer. So you can't clean the chasah on Shabbat. You have to do it on Friday. Also, it's recommended for you to weigh the matzot. uh because the matzah, it's not just eating matzah whenever you feel like it. There is an obligation to eat matzah at the Seder. For people that live in Eretz Yisrael, it's only on the first night. For people that live in the Diaspora, like us, that's two nights. You have to eat a kezayit amount four times, which, according to what we go by, is 30 grams. Okay, so you have to understand that you're not going to know how much 30 grams is because people often think, "Oh yeah, you know, 30 grams is a small little piece." No, it depends on what kind of matzah you have. If you have one of these machine matzot that are square, it's almost three-quarters of the matzah. You have to eat that four times.

17:16Okay? If you have, let's say, one of these matzot shemurah, the round matzahs, then it depends how thick that matzah is, and you have to break off a piece and weigh it. Get a scale and weigh it, but you have to do that on Friday. You can't do it on Shabbat. You have to prepare this on Friday. If you have something called Feterah, which is the matzah that's similar to pita but is kosher for Pesach, then usually it's a little less than a quarter of the pita because it's very heavy in weight. So the point is you have to do this preparation. Know before Pesach that you have however many members of your family and people that are attending your seder. Really, what it should be is each person should have his own maror and his matzah all in different bags, like these Ziploc bags, where they know, "Okay, this is my four servings of matzah to fulfill the obligation of eating matzah on the seder." This is the...

18:22that I'm going to eat for the Seder, and each person should have their own portion. Typically, the mother handles this, or the father if he's taking on that role. But the point is, don't leave it to chance or assume you'll figure it out as you go. What often happens is that people sit at the Seder, eat abundantly, but fail to fulfill the mitzvah because they aren't aware of the required amount to eat. Uh, also you have to know that to eat the matzah, you have to eat it within four minutes. Unless it's a child that's before bar mitzvah age or someone who's sick, then you have up to nine minutes. These halachot seem difficult at first; it seems burdensome, it seems ridiculous. Why do they care, how this, how that? But that's the reality, this is what HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants from us. Anyone who is a chacham lev, meaning someone who has a wise heart, will simply take notes, follow what it says, and move on with us. They will just do what Hashem says, and that's it, not making all types of excuses about why they can't or don't want to. Simply do it; it's not that difficult, especially when you want to do it. The preparation, as far as the maror and as far as the matzah, should be done on Friday, not on Shabbat.

19:38On Saturday morning, the prayer at the synagogue, or if you're praying by yourself at home because your synagogue and your community are closed or for whatever other reason, you have to pray an early netz minyan (sunrise prayer) because you need to make sure to have the seudah (meal) for Shabbat before midday. Midday right now in Florida is somewhere around 11:11 or 11:20. In Israel, it's somewhere around 10:10 or 10:20. Again, you have to check. with your own community where it starts. You end eating chametz on, again, at that time. At that time, it's not just ending eating it, but you also have to move everything already before that time. Put it in a specific section in your house that you're not going to use, or in the garbage. That's why a lot of people, usually for this type of Shabbat, for this that comes before Pesach, many people use everything as disposable. know disposable spoons and knives, disposable plates, and in certain places where it’s available to them, disposable pots and pans. I mean, these days, there’s disposable everything, so it's best to have one of these disposable pots and pans for making food. This way, you don't have to worry about cleaning anything or bugs; everything just goes in the garbage. That's it—finished. That's the ideal situation if you have it available to you. Now, the suda on Friday night...

21:06the seudah on Friday night. So down Friday night, you have to have hamotzi. You have to have something that will do hamotzi for the birkat hamazon. Now you're allowed to eat matzah on Friday, but you're not allowed to eat matzah on Saturday. This is because you're not allowed to eat matzah on Pesach once it begins. We'll go into that in a moment, but on Saturday, you can't eat matzah if you don't want to. However, you still have to do hamotzi, and a lot of poskim say that you're not allowed to do hamotzi on matzah during Shabbat. on matzah during the year, let's say you look at it, and therefore you have to eat bread. You have to eat bread to do the hamotzi on the bread. So, and your meal is chametz. But the point is, yeah, either way, you have to have the hamotzi on Friday night. Now, on the... After the meal of Shabbat morning, you perform the mitzvah of bitul chometz, which is the nullification of the chometz. This refers to the chometz that you know of and dispose of in the garbage. For the chometz that you are unaware of or perhaps have not found, there is a specific declaration that you recite. This is known as the bitul chometz.

22:23Now, you're not allowed to eat matzah on the day of Pesach. The Gemara in Yerushalmi, Masechet Pesachim, section 10, halacha number 1, says anyone that eats matzah on Pesach Eve is like a person who was intimate with his fiancée inside his father-in-law's or future father-in-law's house. It's to that extent. It's frowned upon and forbidden to that extent. Again, the Gemara says anyone that eats matzah on the day of Pesach, meaning before the seder, is like someone who was intimate with his future wife, not his current wife, in his father-in-law's house. That's how disrespectful it is. Why you... You went too early. You went too early. You're not supposed to eat matzah before the seder. Now, some don't eat matzah the whole month. The whole month to make sure that they, you know, are gonna really celebrate eating the matzah when the time comes, and it's really special. Some don't eat it the whole week.

23:36before Pesach, the minhag and the general custom among most people is simply not to eat matzah just that day, but for sure not to eat matzah that day. You're allowed to eat matzah on Friday, okay, but Saturday, no matzah until the seder itself, until the seder itself. Now, the uh, um... called seudah shlishit. About an hour and a half to two hours before the end of Shabbat, so that's Seudat Shlishit. Now, since this year Pesach already starts at around 10 to 11 o'clock in the morning, and you're no longer allowed to eat chametz, that means you can't have challah for Seudat Shlishit. However, you're also not allowed to eat matzah.

24:46You don't have to eat matzah on Seudah Shlishit either. So what do you do? Some people will eat what's called a rich matzah, which is a matzah that's made with wine and flour and sugar. So let's say it lost, in essence, its matzah taste. Or they eat fried matzah or cooked matzah. This is obviously always cooked or fried before Shabbat. And they're allowed to eat that because these types of matzot have lost their real matzah taste. But Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, alav hashalom, would not eat at all and instead would share secrets of the Torah during that time because he said that you cannot eat challah because it's chametz and you cannot eat matzah because, as we just said, it's forbidden. So he asks, what do we do?

25:46Let's just eat more Torah and prepare ourselves for the seder that's coming up in several hours. Make sure to arrive at the seder very hungry. Now, that's also another thing: even if you eat other things, you want to eat fruits, you want to eat vegetables, you want to eat other stuff, that's fine. But make sure that, or if, let's say, you're eating the, uh, the rich matzah, the fried matzah, all these other things that are allowed to be eaten... ...is going to eat fried matzah, or cooked matzah, or rich matzah, then if they eat just a small piece, they should do an "al ha-michyah," the ending blessing on it. But if they eat 216 grams, which is a significant amount, then they have to do the actual Birkat HaMazon. But again, don't eat too much so you still stay hungry for the seder. is going to eat fried matzah, or cooked matzah, or rich matzah, then if they eat just a small piece, then they do an al hamichya, the ending blessing on it. But if they eat 216 grams, which is pretty decent, it's a lot, but nonetheless, if they eat 216 grams of this matzah, then they have to do the actual birkat hamazon. But again, don't eat too much, so you still stay hungry for the seder.

27:01Now, when it comes to matzah shmura, matzah shmura, these are the round matzot that are typically used for the Seder. It's not recommended to use those machine matzot for the Seder because there's a whole machloket about whether it's considered matzah or not. The point is, you're going to have to spend some money on buying the round matzot if you want to celebrate the holiday properly. Uh, in a better way, uh, if anyone wants to get it and doesn't have it available locally or they want something extra special, they can contact me. I'll connect you with one of my dear friends who is selling that matzah. It's not cheap. Don't ask for discounts; this is not the time to save money. Pesach is expensive, but nonetheless, one of the biggest expenses is matzah. You can get matzah anywhere from, you know, $30 for a box of one pound to $70, $100; there's even some as much as $500. I think it's a little crazy, but nonetheless, they exist. They exist in the world.

28:20Uh, everyone has their own dream and so on and so forth. The point being is that you have to make sure that you have a solid, good matzah. If you don't know, you know all these stores sell different matzot. I wouldn't necessarily say always buy the most expensive, because the most expensive doesn't necessarily mean it's the best. I wouldn't necessarily buy the cheapest either, just because, you know, sometimes things are cheap for a reason. but you know try to look at who is the hashgacha, who actually did the hashgacha on this, and you know, the more well-known and accepted among Klal Yisrael, the better it is. Like, if it's, let's say, for example, a specific type of hashgacha that's only accepted among, let's say, their own chassidut, but let's say the Ashkenazim and Sephardim don’t accept it, while you have another choice. matzah where everybody accepts their hashgachah, which is almost, you know, unrealistic. But nonetheless, if there's one that has a hashgachah that everybody accepts, get that one versus the one that's only accepted among others. This is sometimes common, for example, with meat. There are many people that do not eat...

29:34Meat from, let's say, the hashgacha of certain people, of certain organizations, for their own reasons. So, you know, Sephardim have to have a Bet Yosef, but at the same token, if some Bet Yosef is not available, you know, some will go to other hashgachot, but they won't eat Chabad. They won't eat Chabad's hashgacha. Why? They have their own reasons. But in other places, some people, no, they won't eat this one, but they'll eat another one. It's not racism or prejudice. Everybody has their own reasons for doing it. And I know that's one of the things that's making this... ...distribution scheme has the piece that we're doing, distributing food to poor families. That's actually one of the dilemmas that we're dealing with because, Baruch Hashem, we've distributed so much food and money in Elizabeth over the last few years. We've now made contact for the first time ever with the actual distributor itself, meaning the company that supplies the supermarket...

30:40rather than buying everything from supermarkets, we're trying to actually buy everything from the actual wholesaler. This way, each family will get practically double the food that we would typically get them if we bought from supermarkets. So let's say a thousand shekels, that's going to get... Uh, I don't know, let's say 10 chickens and, uh, this piece of meat and that piece of, uh, this, all this doing now, that's when you buy from the supermarket. But when you buy it from the wholesaler, it's now 20 chickens. And so, uh, that’s because obviously everybody has a markup. So we prefer to obviously give the families much more food. We're not looking to save money; we're still going to give the same amount of money. It's just that we're going to have the ability to give more food to these families, which will last them the whole holiday, not just the Seder. So one of the things we're having a tough time with is when it comes to meat. Okay, because when it comes to chicken, there is a kashrut for chicken that most people accept in Eretz Yisrael, but when it comes to meat, it's virtually impossible to find two communities that eat the same type of hashgacha, kashrut, of meat. He wants Rabbanut, he wants Badatz, everyone has their own preference. So it's impossible to supply this to so many hundreds of families.

32:07and cater it to each and every single person and so on. So, most likely, we're not going to do meat at all. We're just going to do a lot of chicken and, obviously, other fish, like salmon. Each one is going to get a salmon that is a little bit bigger than a baby. So, b'ezrat Hashem, we're working on it. The point I'm trying to make is that when it comes to hashgacha, hashgacha is very important. You can't just eat anything that has a K on it. have to look at things, and sometimes it's less important, sometimes it's more important, you know. So, for example, when it comes to meat, the most important part of the meat is who actually supervised this kashrut. That's the most important part of any meat. It's not if this is a this or that; it's who supervised it. Why? Because if the supervisor is one of these Reform mentality supervisors, it might not even be kosher, and on the other hand, when it comes to things that are pareve, there's less of an issue because fewer things can go wrong. But when it comes to matzot, most people are not going to know all of the details because there's a lot of uh

33:17seasonal operations of different rabbis that only function once a year to make matzot, so you're not going to see their stamp on other food throughout the rest of the year. However, if it is possible for you to get some type of word of mouth or some type of recommendation of one over another, not just because of price, it is recommended to... uh, to uh, to get those, again, like I said, I have a friend that deals with it. Anyone who wants to deal with it, uh, uh, we could, uh, help. But again, don't break my head and give me work to do. That’s also as a side note. There are a few of you that, God bless you, I, you know, I try to do everything, but you guys are sending me homework. like, "Hey Rabbi, once you read this article, let me know what you think." You know, they send me a five-page article and want me to read it. Go find it; go read it yourself. Don't give me homework. A lot of people are sending me these missions, like "Oh Rabbi, can you look into this Beit Din and tell me what you think of them?" You know how long that stuff takes? You can't just give me that. You have to ask specific questions. So again, I appreciate that everybody cares about my opinion so much and what I think of certain things, but...

34:29know, you have to realize that I literally have tens of thousands of people that I deal with regularly, hundreds of emails and messages every single day. It's simply not possible for me to address some of these projects that people send me. And the same thing goes with these matzot. You want me to help you? I'll give you the contact information, and you do everything from that point. We could, uh, uh... uh, help you by simply, uh, making the transaction for you; you send the money, we'll send them the address, and they'll ship you the matzos, and that's it. Don't ask, "Oh yeah, I don't like it, what's the return policy?" No returns. It's just simply doing a service. You want it? Get it. You don't want it? Go buy it from your local store. But this is, again, only if you are domestic in the United States. Don't ask me for any shipments to different countries. It's not the time. Anyway... Back to the halachot, matzah shmurah, again, this is the matzah you're going to be using for the seder and for Pesach. Now, you can eat those square matzot if you want during the holiday, but for the seder, it should be matzah shmurah.

35:41Or if you have petira, if you like the petira, which is the soft matzahs. But again, you have to be very, very careful with the kashrut. I know that Rav Gidon ben Moshe, the sheikh, he's the head of the Jerusalem Beit Din. He has a recipe for from hundreds and hundreds of years that he makes those every year. Sometimes we get them. That's actually going to be part of the things we give out to the families in Eretz Yisrael that are needy. But even those, again, not everybody wants them. Why is that? I'm only going to get those still from a rabbi that I know, so if they don't know, which is... Unusual, but I know that some people won't accept it. So, you have to be careful with what people care about; kashrut is even more significant in Israel than it is here in America. But the point is that the matzah, that matzah shemurah, you're going to eat on Pesach. You're not allowed to carry it on Shabbat. Why? It's considered muktzeh. Why? Because you're not allowed to eat it.

36:46not to eat it, and therefore, you're not allowed to touch it. So don't, uh, set up anything during the day of Shabbat. Don't set up anything during Shabbat. In fact, regarding setting up for the Leil Seder, you're not allowed to do that on Shabbat because you're not allowed to prepare for Motzei Shabbat on Shabbat and you're not allowed to prepare for a holiday on Shabbat. You're only allowed to do things on Shabbat that are relevant to Shabbat. So when can you prepare for the Seder, especially if you're expecting a lot of guests? The earliest time... The earliest time that you're allowed to start setting up the table for Leil HaSeder, according to Halacha, is 13 and a half minutes after sunset. If you start setting up the table for the Seder, if you start setting up everything for the Seder before that—if you start doing it in the afternoon, or even 15 minutes before sunset—you are Mechalel Shabbat, you are violating Shabbat.

37:55Okay, you're not allowed to do it. You have to take this seriously because people can literally lose their Olam Haba for a foolish minute due to anxiety problems. So, you have to know that 13 and a half minutes before sunset is the earliest. Personally, I recommend you wait a little bit. wait a little bit and start doing everything already after, but again, if you want to do it at 1:30, you know at that time that's perfectly fine. Some women have a lot of guests and a lot of anxiety to go with it. They want to get every minute that they can, that's no problem. However, don't do it too early because if you do it too early, it's a very, very serious problem. Now, um, during the prayer before the actual tefillah itself, instead of which you usually do in ma'ariv, you actually add a prayer called kiddush. is what you're adding to the prayer at that point. It's similar to , but it's not the same. This you'll see also in your siddur. Now, when it comes to Havdalah, Havdalah is, on Motzei Shabbat, Havdalah is part of the seder. It's not separate like it is every single week. It's actually part of the seder. Okay, part of the Haggadah, part of everything, tying from the beginning.

39:24going from havdalah into the seder, it's not like two separate things, okay? So you have to do havdalah. This year is only With wine and fire, no besamim. No besamim because the besamim is usually to make the neshama feel better because the extra neshama has left. But since we're going from Kodesh to Kodesh, from the holiness of Shabbat to the holiness of Yom Tov, of Pesach, the neshama yetera, the extra neshama, stays and doesn't leave. Okay, so there's no besamim needed. So, you do it on wine. You say the prayer; instead of HaMavdil bein kodesh l'chol (from holiness to the mundane), we say HaMavdil bein kodesh l’kodesh. Okay, so you have to pay attention to that. That is, again, usually in the beginning of your Haggadah. We will be coming out as an organization again this year with a Haggadah in Hebrew, Hebrew only, with new chiddushim by Rabbi Efraim. We're gonna be printing a thousand copies in Israel.

40:36a hard copy, it's going to be beautiful, beautiful. I just got the messages today with the details. We'll have an online digital version available, but I personally prefer a hard copy. So, if you have a hard copy available to you, then you should definitely get that. But if you have a... don't have it, and then obviously you could download it from our website. Haggadah, you'll see we have an English version from last year, but that hasn't been updated. Also, there are a few errors that need to be fixed, which I don't think we'll have the time to do before Pesach. it's not like the worst mistakes in the world or anything, but it's just a few errors if you compare the Hebrew to the English, and a few minor errors. I personally would recommend somebody getting it from a store. If you need the English version, getting something from a store to buy something. Personally, I like the Katz. Katz's Haggadah has beautiful drawings. The kids love it, and the drawings are not just beautiful drawings, but

41:48the actual drawings that are based on the Midrash, so each drawing has significance to it. The point being is, uh, this is what I would recommend. But of course, there are countless Haggadot. If you have one or you want to buy one, there's plenty of them available on different websites on, uh, art scroll, on Feldheim, on Sefarim Center, on Moznaim, and countless other Judaica stores and so on. Get yourself a Haggadah, but make sure you get it for your custom. Don't buy an Ashkenazi Haggadah if you're Sephardic. ArtScroll, Feldheim, Seforim Center, Moznaim, and countless other Judaica stores, and so on. Get yourself a Haggadah, but make sure you get it for your custom. Don't buy an Ashkenazi Haggadah if you're Sephardic. don't buy a Sephardic Haggadah if you're Ashkenazi, unless you know it's a specific difference. For example, the Katz Haggadah is actually Ashkenazi. I'm Sephardic, but I know the difference between the two, and I know where to make the certain changes. I like it for my kids. I like it for my kids because it's the most visually appealing Haggadah that I've seen, so I give it to them. They're babies, you know, four years old, five, six years old. It's a little kid, so they don't necessarily need to know every single word. So whenever I need to make a change, I make a change. But, you know, if someone is getting it for themselves, if you're reading it for everybody and you're Sephardi...

43:01know either know the difference ahead of time and know where to make the changes, which the biggest difference usually is in the pronunciation. However, there are some other minor differences between Sephardi and Ashkenazi customs. If you don't know the differences, then adhere to your traditions and customs. It is what it is. As far as the Havdalah, again, like I said, it's part of the seder. First, you do Havdalah, then you do the Kiddush, then you light the fire. Okay, which elaborates and finishes at that point, which is again the fire, which is the Havdalah fire when you say "hamavdil bein kodesh lechol." Now, the fire is a problem. Why is the fire a problem? Because...

44:02You know that you can't light a new fire at this moment because it's a holiday, even though you just finished Shabbat. It's Motzei Shabbat, but it's Yom Tov, so you cannot light a new fire. Okay, you can't light a new fire, so what you have to do is have a long-lasting candle, at least 48 hours. lit before Shabbat. I personally recommend lighting two, just in case one goes out. A 48-hour or 72-hour candle that you can light before Shabbat is advisable because if you want to cook... On Yom Tov, which is one major difference that you're allowed to do on Yom Tov versus Shabbat, you're allowed to cook, but you're only allowed to cook with fire from an existing fire, meaning it has to be an existing flame lighting the new flame, as opposed to creating a new fire altogether. So you need to have an existing flame, which means you should have a candle already lit from before Yom Tov. For example, you could use a 48-hour candle or a 72-hour candle that you're using.

45:07And you can't use that candle for Havdalah. You can't use that Havdalah candle because over the 25 hours of Shabbat, that candle goes down. Once that candle goes down, it gets covered by the glass or whatever is covering the candle itself. Okay, and now, according to this, you can no longer use that candle for Havdalah. Even though it's fire, the fire that you're seeing against your fingernails when you're doing the Havdalah is not the actual fire itself but a reflection of the fire, and it's not permissible. This is also actually a chiddush for many of us simply because you have a large candle that's beautiful and everything. However, that candle, after a while, after a few times you've used it for Havdalah, starts sinking in. If you didn't realize what the halacha is, you might still be using that candle. but it says that you have to have a raised fire. You have to have a fire that's high. That's why a lot of people use that candle that's very long because the wicks are at the top of it. So it doesn't matter how much of it you've used, the fire is always on top, okay? So what you wanna do is that you don't wanna have

46:22a, uh, a really long candle for this specific havdalah, because what are you gonna do with it after? You can't, you know, you can't extinguish it. So what some people do is they either take that long candle and just cut a small piece of it and, you know, connect it to a holder, where even after you light it, it burns off eventually, and it's like a small candle but it's still at the top. Or you use like one of those Shabbat candles. uh that eventually, uh, uh, burns off. You don't want this whole candle, a long candle, you know, burning for so long; it can become a little dangerous because, again, it's not like the ones that are in a glass. The point is that it has to be fire to fire, and so use the existing fire that you lit already on Friday to light the Havdalah candle. Make sure the Havdalah candle is short, but ensure that the fire is at the top of it, not sinking down. This way, the fire will eventually go out that night and will not last multiple days. Do not light another 72-hour candle for Havdalah.

47:42That about sums it up, Rabotai, for the halachot of Pesach, the Seder section. The last thing I would say is in regard to the rest of the holiday. Obviously, for those in the Diaspora, we have two Sedarim. Every Jew that lives in the Diaspora has to do two Sedarim; you cannot just do one. You have to do two, and they're exactly the same, with no difference. Two Afikomen. have to drink four cups of wine or grape juice, uh, you have to eat the matzah, four servings, uh, the maror, read the entire Haggadah, uh, enjoy and make sure not to fight, have a good time. The main part of the Seder is to teach the children of the house about Yetziat Mitzrayim. That's the main part, so even if you have the, uh, the most important, uh, Rabbi in the world, the most important person in the world. as a guest in your house, you have to make them secondary to your children. Why? The main thing is to tell your children about Yetziat Mitzrayim until everybody's tired and they go to sleep. But that's the main thing. The main thing of Pesach is not the host's guests. The main thing of Pesach is to actually teach your children about the Exodus.

49:04And that's the most important part, and if you don't have kids, then tell the story to your wife. And if you don't have a wife, then tell the story to yourself. The point is, you have to do as much as possible at the Seder on both nights. The more you say, the more praiseworthy you are. Then, after the second night, you have Chol HaMoed. A lot of people think that Chol HaMoed is just a day off when you go back to work. This is wrong. People that desecrate and treat it like a regular day and they just go back to work unnecessarily can lose their Olam HaBa. Okay, you're only allowed to work on Chol HaMoed if not working will create a loss, meaning... if, let's say, you go to work, you make money, and if you don't go to work, you don't make money, that's not considered a loss. That's just considered, you know, you're not making a profit. But if your boss tells you that if you don't work on Chol HaMoed, you're going to get fired, then you're allowed to work on Chol HaMoed. That's only on Chol HaMoed, not on Yom Tov. On Yom Tov, there's no working. On Shabbat, there's no working, no matter what your boss says.

50:13there's only permission to work if not working would create a loss. The same applies to investments; you're only allowed to deal with investments if not doing something would create a loss. You can't buy anything new. but you can sell, you can exit positions or close out positions, unless again what you're buying is a hedge. The point being is you have to know that it is still a holiday; it's still a holiday. It's not a time to just go back as if there's no holiday. You have to make sure you honor the holiday. So, with that being said, uh, that in essence sums up this year's, uh, Pesach. If you have any other questions, you can ask them privately. If I need to look up anything or there's anything that I didn't cover, please feel free to let me know. But that is, in essence, pretty much it.

51:55My beloved friends, my dear people of Israel, and my beloved ones, because every year, every year, every year, Igud Be'ezrat Hashem takes thousands of people from the House of Israel. Already today, we are standing on nearly 20,000 people who come and want to be assisted by Igud Be'ezrat Hashem. Even though in the previous campaigns we did not raise the amount, our friend and head of the organization, Rabbi Yaron Reuven, took on this heavy burden to come and provide. in food, and drinks, and matches, and gifts, and more and more and more, thousands and thousands of Beit Yisrael, all over the country. My beloved friends, the halacha has ended at the table. In the course of life, the sign of Tav, Kuf, Tet, Tzadi, Alef, that we need to come and share the food that is needed for Passover, for the needs of Passover. If you will sit My dear friends, will you help us to do this great work? To be happy? About 20,000 Jews, sick and needy, from every corner of the Israeli Jewish community, will come to the help of Hashem in Hashem's name, and will be blessed with a beautiful eye and a beautiful soul. And the Holy One, blessed be He, already said, whoever rejoices in Me, I rejoice in him.

53:10About 20,000 Jews, sick and in need, from every corner of the Israeli Jewish community, will come to the help of Hashem, and will be blessed with a good eye and a pure soul. And the Holy One, blessed be He, already said, whoever rejoices in Me, I rejoice in him. Hi everyone, just wanted to remind you that we're having our Kimcha D'Pischa annual campaign. Every year, we conduct a campaign for Pesach and also for all the other holidays to distribute food and money to Torah scholars in Eretz Yisrael. We continue to reach bigger and bigger milestones, and this year is no different. We not only want to help them, we want to help you. So we're having two major events where 500 avreichim in each location are going to be completing the entire Talmud Bavli. That's a thousand avreichim, each one with a family, with kids, on average about 11 people per family. So you talk about 11,000 people. In addition to that, we have hundreds and hundreds of families that are going to be receiving food baskets to help them with the holidays. This is all thanks to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and all the amazing partners that we have who help us assist Am Yisrael. Everyone who donates is going to have the merit of doing chesed, the mitzvah of Kimcha D'Pischa, and the extraordinary Torah, having the benefit of a siyum haShas.

54:37This is a very big thing. We're looking at approximately 18,000 people that are going to be eating, perhaps even more than that. And we need as many of you to partner with us as generously as you have ever been because this is a huge opportunity to do a Kiddush Hashem, to show these extraordinary Torah scholars that they can celebrate in a respectable, honorable, and enjoyable way, just like everybody else. In fact, they should even enjoy it even more. Please donate, contribute, and get other people to do the same. Just as you're making these Torah scholars and their families happy, you're also making Hashem happy. Be'ezrat Hashem, HaKadosh Baruch Hu will make you and your family happy by fulfilling all of your prayers and bringing you all the blessings of the Torah. Thanks again for all your contributions. And, Be'ezrat Hashem, we look forward to seeing your name on the list of partners. In this extraordinary campaign to publicize HaKadosh Baruch Hu's name and make sure that His children enjoy this holiday. Kol Tuv, Chag Sameach.