Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Living Jewishly podcast.

00:09 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back my friends to the new segment of the Everyday Judaism podcast, ask Away, session number three. My dear friends, we are open to your questions and please shoot, go ahead. What are your questions? Six questions, that is amazing. I love that. I love that. That is outstanding. Thank you.

00:34
All right, so that's a great question of how long does it take to write a Torah scroll? So, generally speaking, a Torah scroll takes about a year, sometimes a little bit longer, sometimes a little bit shorter, depending on how much time the scribe has to write it, how motivated they are. Just as a general idea, a Torah scroll again, every single letter needs to be written with the intention and the focus of writing it l'shem mitzvah, for the sake of a mitzvah, of writing a Torah scroll. So a scribe needs to be focused at every moment. Now what many scribes do and this is the halacha says is an added stringency, an added level of piety, for a scribe to go into the mikvah prior to writing every letter of the Torah. So it's not not write a letter, go into mikvah. Write a letter, go into mikvah, no, but every time before they resume writing, they go to the mikvah. So again, how long can a person write for consecutive hours of writing. You need to stretch, you need to take a break. You need to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. You need to pray Shachar Z'min Chama'er of morning, afternoon and evening prayers, so there are breaks and you have to spend time with your family or your children, hopefully. So there is. You know, let's say that someone can write for eight hours a day. That's a lot of writing. That's a lot of writing. So you write two columns a day. You still have hundreds of columns, so it's going to take some time. That's a great question. So what do you do if the scribe dies mid-writing the scroll? Not on the scroll, but in the process of writing the scroll? Yes, anybody else can continue writing it as long as it is continued to be written with the intention of the mitzvah that they are performing. So if the scribe that was writing it was a righteous Jew who was writing the Torah scroll, there's no reason that anybody else can continue to write that scroll and continue their work that they were doing.

02:39
So where are the majority of Torah scrolls written? I would say that probably they are written in Israel. But even in Israel, I would say that the majority of scribes write them in their safety room. So it's very interesting. I've seen many, many scribes. I've gone to see to visit with many people who are scribes and I found them not writing at their dining room table but rather writing in a quiet place where they're not interrupted by noise. And you know, it's usually the quietest place in a building is the storage room in every building. The second as a security room for if, god forbid, there is a time of war or if rockets are launched at Israel, like we experienced many times, unfortunately, in the past year, they'll set themselves up with a special table with the ink and quill, in a quiet place which is well lit, so that they can focus and write it appropriately.

03:39
That's a great question. So the question of how much does it cost? And the difference in sizes of the Torah scroll. So the larger the Torah scroll, the easier it is to write it. Also, you have to calculate the price of the parchment, the price of the ink, the price of the quill, the price of the rods that you have on each side that roll of the rods that you have on each side that roll, and then the price that it costs for the scribe for the time that he spends writing it. He needs to support his family.

04:14
We did a Torah scroll for our synagogue several years ago and I think the cost was in the range of $60,000 to $80,000. But it also depends $60,000 to $80,000, but it also depends $60,000 to $80,000. But you can get a little bit cheaper, which I wouldn't recommend, because why is it costing so little? And that's the regular size. Now, the smaller it is, the more difficult and more detailed you have to be and it'll probably cost more. So the smaller it is, it's also more convenient. People can travel with those, people can take them in a suitcase. So it's more convenient. But it's also more difficult to write it. You have to be very, very, very meticulous and careful. You have to write it. It probably takes longer to write it and will definitely cost more as well. If someone offers you a Torah scroll for 10 grand, don't take it. There's something wrong, I guarantee it.

05:10
We had a Torah scroll that was brought to us, as was mentioned in the previous episode of the Everyday Judaism podcast, and the individual got it. I think they paid several thousand dollars for it. It was post-Holocaust, it was one of those that were brought from Europe and I had it checked out and they said that it wasn't valid. He said I can have it for like $1,500. It was like you know. So I was like very excited, I'm like for so cheap I can have my own Torah scroll, which is a mitzvah, by the way, in the Torah, for every person to write a Torah scroll. It's a mitzvah in the Torah for every person to write a Torah scroll.

05:48
The Chavetz Chaim says that if someone is not able to afford to write a Sefer Torah, they're not able to afford to spend the $60,000, $70,000, $80,000, buying books of the Torah, explaining the Torah, also fulfills that mitzvah. But the ideal, the perfection of that mitzvah would be to purchase a new Torah scroll. To have it written, have it commissioned by you is the ideal form of fulfilling of that mitzvah. So you mentioned we mentioned previously about the Torah scroll that it's very sensitive to the hot or cold, extreme hot or extreme cold, and therefore you should be very, very careful. What's about a parchment of a mezuzah that is outside the house in Houston, texas, with 100 degrees, by the way, the challenge in Houston is not only the heat, it's the humidity. The humidity which causes, in that little plastic casing, condensation, and then it's a disaster and it's a big problem in Houston. So number one is that there are mezuzah cases but, just as a review, a mezuzah does not mean the mezuzah case. The mezuzah means the parchment inside the case. The parchment is more important. I'll share the story. I've shared it before. It's very important for us to know.

07:11
I was once visiting at a friend's house and I was leaning on the doorpost. It was particularly for a minion that was for a shiva. Someone had passed away. This person was flying back to sit shiva in Houston late at night. They needed a minion. I had already prayed but I wanted to pay a shiva call and I'm leaning there. It was like 11 o'clock and I'm leaning there against the doorpost waiting for them to finish the prayer service.

07:39
I didn't realize but the nail from the mezuzah got caught in my jacket and when I pulled away crashing, the mezuzah went everywhere, glass everywhere. Now, I didn't even know it was a very precious mezuzah to these people because this was the glass inside the mezuzah. That was from the glass that was broken under the chuppah from their wedding and someone had it custom made for them and I was so embarrassed and I was so apologetic and I walked into the kitchen and I saw the wife there. I'm like I'm so sorry I ruined your mezuzah and I asked for a broom and a shovel and I cleaned it up and I'm like, and then the husband says thank you for breaking the mezuzah. He says I just looked at the parchment and it was never a kosher mezuzah.

08:30
He says this mezuzah we got from our aunt and she gave it to us, so we just put it right up. We thought there was a kosher parchment in there. But it turns out there was no parchment in there. It was only a piece of paper, a copied paper, which didn't even have the full. Any type of paper is not kosher. It was only a piece of paper, a copied paper, which didn't even have the full. Any type of paper is not kosher. It has to be written ink on parchment, kosher ink, kosher parchment. So it is like. You know they're like thank you so much. I'm like none of. I feel terrible. You know, I'll buy you a new mezuzah case I'll buy. They're like no, no, no, this was, this was a greater gift that you let us know that you informed us that the mezuzah was not kosher.

09:07
Now back to our question. If a mezuzah is outdoors, which most mezuzahs in Houston are outdoors it is worthwhile investing in a tube-like case that seals the temperature inside, seals the condensation inside If it's like a, like a rubber plug that they have for it that the mezuzah case is not exposed to the outside condensation or or or moisture, but the heat is still an impact. So it's worthwhile to make sure that we check our mezuzahs regularly, try to keep it out of direct sunlight and and hopefully you know the halacha says that we should check our mezuzahs twice every seven years, so which is basically every three years, three and a half years. Regarding my tefillin, I'm a little bit neurotic about it and I check my tefillin like every three, four years. More of the tefillin, if they're worn daily, do not need to be checked as frequently, but because I want to make sure my tefillin are perfect, I check them like every couple of years and I'm like a little crazy about it. So it needs to be inspected by a scribe.

10:22
A scribe who knows. I will. After class, I will share with you a scribe who is a very, very righteous, pious Jew. He will come to your house, take off all the mezuzahs, check them and bring them back the same day. Okay, so that's a great service we have here in Houston. For those of you who are not in Houston, who are watching and or listening to this podcast or recording, I recommend that you find a bona fide scribe. Do not buy mezuzahs on Amazon, please. Okay, if it's too cheap, there's a reason it's too cheap. I can make photocopies too. That's not the way mezuzahs are written. Mezuzahs are handwritten ink on parchment by a pious Jew right, not photocopied. So this is again very, very important.

11:09
And one more question, very incredible question what happens if a Torah scroll or a mezuzah or a tefillin are found to be unkosher any longer? What do you do? How do you dispose of them? That's an excellent question. So, since it is something of a mitzvah, you are not allowed to dispose of it. You don't throw it in the garbage God forbid and you're not allowed to dispose of it by doing anything other than giving it the most honorable disposal, and that is by burying it. And it's called shamos, which is the names of Hashem.

11:48
You don't just throw them out. By the way, even a piece of paper. If you notice, in our prayer podcast we give out a handout and I don't write the name of Hashem on that paper, because then that paper can never be thrown out. So wherever we have the name of Hashem, I compensate with a. Instead of writing Hashem's name, I'll write a dalet, so that way it's replacing Hashem's name with a non-name of Hashem. Or where it would be Elokeinu instead of Eloheinu, I will replace the he with a kuf. That way, if that paper does accidentally get thrown out out, it is not desecrating the name of Hashem, which is a violation of the Ten Commandments. You're not allowed to erase the name of Hashem. So what? The proper thing to do and this, by the way, is also with a talus, a talus that is no longer kosher. You're not allowed to just throw out the strings. Those strings were once kosher. You're not allowed to just throw out the strings. Those strings were once kosher. So what you do is you bury them as well.

12:48
And every Pesach time, in most Jewish communities, including ours here in Houston, there is a place that you can go to dispose of all of your even, by the way, old books. It's the same thing. You have an old, old prayer book. Make sure it's not too old, because then it could be very valuable. But it could be, you know. But imagine you have a chumash that is very old and or, if God forbid, there were worms that bit through it and now you don't want to use it, but you can't dispose of it. You can't throw it in the garbage.

13:18
What do you do? You bring it to this place that the community assigns. Usually it's near the cemetery. They will dig up the ground at least six feet, bury it properly and then cover it with earth and then it is properly disposed of. So most Jewish cemeteries will have a space dedicated for that and you can continue. It's biodegradable, it's paper, it's from trees, so most of these will dissipate over time. So you can continue to add to the space. You can re-dig up and continue to place it there. Technically speaking, you could use an auger, but usually it's more than just one book that needs to be buried. It's an entire community. So it almost looks like a burial plot, but sometimes it's even bigger. I've seen almost like an entire landfill that is dug up and then they put in all the books. They don't put in plastic, they don't put things like that which are not biodegradable, and they just cover it with the urethane. It really is completely properly disposing of those holy artifacts.

14:29
So, everything having to do with the writing of a Torah scroll, we need to ensure that everything is kosher, everything was done. So first is we'll only hire someone who's a God-fearing Jew, that's number one. But how do we know that when it's concluded, someone who's a God-fearing Jew, that's number one. But how do we know that when it's concluded? So first is, a Torah scroll is not considered concluded until the last letter is filled in. So if you have 99.9% of the Torah scroll written but not the last letter, it's not yet a Torah scroll. It's as valuable as a doormat. As soon as that last letter is concluded, it has now become a Sefer Torah instantly.

15:13
So what many scribes will do is they'll write the entire Torah and leave the last little, maybe three verses open. They'll write out the outline of the letter but not fill it in. And the reason they'll do that is because sometimes the donor, or the community of the donor, who is commissioning the scroll, wants to have the merit of concluding the scroll. So they'll offer people, offer friends, offer family, the privilege and the honor of filling in those letters. And it really is special, and sometimes people will spend a lot of money paying to have that privilege and honor. So, for example, a letter that begins with your Hebrew name is very, very powerful. I want to have a letter, I want to do the letter that has my name. You know so, and that people will pay an excessive amount because they want to have that privilege. So, again, these are things that we want to be part of a Torah scroll. We want to have part in that mitzvah and therefore people will partake in it, especially if it's a scroll that's given towards the use of a synagogue that's going to use it daily Such an incredible merit that this Torah scroll is being used every single day.

16:30
I was with a friend of mine, maybe five or six years ago, and it was just after his father had passed, and I said you know, maybe you want to dedicate a Torah scroll in memory of your father. You know, we had at the time, a brand new synagogue and we needed a Torah scroll. We were using somebody's backup old, old synagogue. Father, you know, we had at the time a brand new synagogue and we needed a Torah scroll. We're using somebody's backup old, old synagogue that needed repairs and that needed a lot of work. She said you know, that's a great idea, but can you guarantee me that it'll be used regularly. I said, well, we have no other Torah scroll, so it'll be used.

17:05
It's literally used every Monday, every Thursday, every Shabbos morning, every Shabbos Mincha and on Rosh Chodesh and on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and Sukkot and all the holidays it is really, and Passover and Shavuot. It's used for everything that's needed in the congregation. That's really really special, because sometimes people can dedicate a Torah scroll to a synagogue and it's one of 50 scrolls, so you'll be lucky if it gets in the rotation, if it's ever used here. Sometimes you find a small synagogue where it's going to be used every single time there's a minyan. That's very, very special. Good question, right? Great question what happens after someone passes and they're Talas and Tefillin? What should be done with them? That's a great question. My grandfather's Tefillin was given to my youngest brother for his bar mitzvah and it was like wow, that's like everybody wants that. It's like my grandfather was such a righteous Jew who doesn't want to wear his tefillin every day. My son, for the first few months until his tefillin were ready, he wore that tefillin, but that's a very, very special thing.

18:20
Now about the talis every person who's buried is buried in a talis. It is very precious if they're able to be buried in their own talus that they used daily or weekly on Shabbos. That's a very, very special thing if a person can. If a person isn't, and the burial society buries them in a different talus, that's fine. Their family can continue to use it and it's a beautiful heirloom. It's a beautiful commemoration of that person that his tefillin continues to be worn by his descendants and that his talis continues to be worn. My son, when he got a new talis, gave his old talis to the synagogue and that talis is being used. Every single time a chazen goes up they're using that talis and it's such a huge merit that his talis continues to be used. Even after he quote disposed of it and has a new talis, his old talis is still being used in the synagogue constantly by the chazen. So that's a very special thing.

19:24
Every person gets an aliyah, needs a talis. Boom, they put on his talis. Very special that it continues to be used. So what many people do is they leave a note after they pass that the burial society will know that they have a talis, their own talis, that they want to be buried. You can inform someone in the family. You can inform the funeral home that the arrangements are made for your talis a person's own talis to be used.

19:52
So, my dear friends, next question. Thank you, gary. Those were outstanding questions. Riveting, that's the way questions are asked, all right. Next, that is an excellent, excellent question.

20:05
Okay, so you said that yesterday, which was Parshas B'Shalach, the rabbi stood up before the Ali and he says everyone please rise. And you want to know what in the world is going on here? So when we read special parts of the Torah, we stand up. For example, yesterday we read the song that the Jewish people sang when the sea was split, when they got to the sea Az Yashir Moshe. At that point everybody rises up on their feet because that's us. That's the song that we sang as a people united, thanking Hashem for this incredible miracle of the splitting of the sea. Az Yashir Moshe. Imagine what happened, the chaos. They split the sea Like stop. We have to sing thank Hashem. It's an amazing, amazing opportunity.

20:52
That's not the only time that they will declare for everyone to stand. There's another. At the end of each book of the Torah, before the last verse, they tell everyone to rise because at the conclusion of the book of the Torah, everyone will declare chazak, chazak, benit chazek. From strength to strength. We will continue to be strengthened and that is something that we all declare together. That's another point of where we stand.

21:18
There are several other times where we stand during the reading of the Torah, but that's a very good question. When it's a special part of the reading of the Torah, obviously all Torah reading is special, but when it's a unique part, then we stand for that. For example, next week we're going to do it again for the reading of the Ten Commandments. They're going to read the Ten Commandments in Parshas Yisro this coming week and then we're going to tell everyone. They're going to announce again everyone, please rise, because we're reading the Ten Commandments, which is that's like the Big Ten that's to the Song of the Sea. They stand and for the Ten Commandments we'll stand. And there are again other parts of the Torah where we stand. But that is a fabulous question.

22:04
Your question is a very fundamental question the halacha and the mitzvahs. Okay, a mitzvah is a command. The halacha is how you fulfill the command. Okay, the mitzvah tells you what to do. The Torah tells us what to do, but it doesn't tell us how to do. The halacha tells us how to do.

22:23
It's very important to know halacha because otherwise we don't know how to fulfill the mitzvah. We know Hashem commands us, for example, to pray, but we see we're already 24 chapters in in how to pray. It's that we know what to do, but how do we do it? And that's why it's so important for every single Jew to be well-versed in halacha, because if we don't know halacha, it's very hard to know how to fulfill the will of Hashem. We know what to do. For example, torah says to put a mezuzah on our door, but it doesn't tell us what the mezuzah is. It tells us to put tefillin on our hand and on our head, between our eyes, but it doesn't tell us what tefillin are right. We all know that tefillin need to be black. We all know that tefillin need to be square, but we don't know more details about it. And how do we even know those? So all of this is what the halacha guides us.

23:23
Halacha guides us through the discussions of the Talmud all the way, going back to the sources in the Torah, of giving us exact details in how we observe it. So the Torah tells us what to do. The Halacha tells us how to do? That is a superb question. So that's a special question Is Halacha limited or is it unlimited?

23:45
And the explanation to that question is can the rabbis expand on it? Can the rabbis disagree on it? You know we brought an example in our Thinking Talmudist class just this Friday about four different opinions on what is you know, four different points that were brought down in the halacha. So why is it that sometimes you'll find that there are so many opinions. Why bring them? Just tell me one. Tell me this is the way we follow. And finished, why are you giving me the other opinions?

24:14
Because halacha, contrary to what people want halacha to be, people want halacha to be very rigid. Tell me what to do, yes or no, good or bad, just tell me, tell me what to do. Halacha doesn't work like that. Halacha, it always depends on the scenario, it always depends on the circumstances. Halacha is not dry, halacha is living.

24:41
And it's dangerous for it to be that, because then someone could say well, my interpretation is like okay, it has to be sourced, okay, I saw once a devastating, just a ridiculous ignorance of a rabbi, someone who calls himself a rabbi that said well, on Shabbos, shabbos is a day of rest. My definition of rest is driving to the beach with my family. Well, your definition is not abiding by halacha. Because, again, that's the danger, is that if someone doesn't know Torah and someone doesn't understand Torah and how the system of Torah works, then to them it's oh, halacha is whatever I decided. Is that's not true? Okay, and it's definitely somebody who's never learned all of the Torah, all of the oral Torah, which includes the Mishnah, which includes the Talmud, which includes Maimonides, the Rambam, his Halakhas, the Yad HaChazaka, then it's just opinion. That's not real knowledge of Halakha. A person's not real knowledge of halakha. A person who has real knowledge of halakha will go to the source, always to the source. What does the Torah tell us? Then? Go through the conversations in the Mishnah, in the Talmud. What's the conclusion, what are the proofs for everything, for each opinion, and then you can come up with your own understanding of it. But just randomly throwing out a very, very dangerous statement of like, oh, shabbos means a day of rest, so like, that's asinine, it's stupid.

26:24
Halacha is very, very structured within the boundaries, but within the boundaries. But within the boundaries there's flexibility. To what degree? I'll just give you an example. The halacha says that when three men eat together, there's a special way in which they begin reciting the grace after meals. The halacha says if two people ate together and a third person joined them, how much does that third person need to eat in order to be included as part of their meal? One opinion is they need to actually eat bread. Another opinion they need to eat pastries. Another opinion is fruits and vegetables. Another opinion is if they even just had a drink not except for water, if they only had a drink, they're considered like they're part of the quorum of three. Those are four different opinions, of which one is included, and the halacha says and we follow the most lenient that if they only drank water, that's enough for them to be included as part of that quorum and they can recite that special introductory blessing. Everyone agrees on the fundamental principle, but to just say two is fine, no, that's not what the halacha says. Okay, it says what is it? So, within the confines of halacha, there's flexibility, but we don't make up new rules, we don't make up new laws. Okay, so that's very important to know that. Yes, halacha is very defining within a structure.

28:00
Now, once you're in that structure, you can find varying opinions. I'll give you an example, I had recently Someone asked me a question and this was a fundamental question According to two different opinions. According to one, it would be completely unkosher. According to others, it's perfectly fine. How's that possible? Well, they hold in that framework that in such a case it is not concerning, and in such a case it is concerning, you understand. So now, if it is concerning, it's fully concerning. But again, you have to know the parameters and that's why it's so important.

28:46
Here's something very fundamental Shabbos, kosher, pesach, like big, fundamental areas of Jewish law. The more you learn, the easier it gets. The easier it gets. The less you know, the more difficult it is, because everything's forbidden. I can't do anything. That's not true. The more you know, the easier it gets, because you know one second, one second, one second. Why would that be prohibited on Shabbos? And you go through. There are 39 laws you try to figure out. Is there any of those laws that are being violated? No, it becomes much easier the more you know.

29:31
The problem is is that we're not always learned enough to know it all, so we rely on many of the books. That's why we have hundreds of books here in the Torch Library and that's why there's thousands and thousands of books in the Torch Library, and that's why there's thousands and thousands of books in the Judaica store that are all giving us guidance and helping us understand those laws. But I will tell you that one of the greatest, carlos, can you please pass me the gray? One of those gray books? Yeah, any of those.

30:00
So this is a book that was written by a great rabbi in Muncie, rabbi Ribiat, about the laws of Shabbos. It's called the 39 Malachas. It's one of four volumes. This is an amazing book on the laws of Shabbos, and the reason excuse me, the reason it is because he goes through each of the 39 principles of Shabbat and what he does is in the introduction of each of the 39 principles of Shabbat. And what he does is in the introduction of each of the laws. He gives you the background of what was this, what is the principle that lies behind this law, and then he goes into broader and broader and broader detail.

30:49
So when you learn it and you're like, ah, now I get it, it's not just a question of is it permitted or prohibited, which many people just want. Just tell me, can I do it or not? Right here you get into the fundamentals of it? Why is it prohibited or permitted? Why is it or permitted? Why is it? Why can we be lenient in certain cases? Why are we more stringent in other cases? It gives you the background so you understand the full parameters of halacha, not just. You know cut and dry. Laws do or don't, and there's no rhyme or reason for it. Okay, so that was an excellent—I think I started with a superb question, so thank you. Thank you very much for that question.

31:34
Next question so you ask whether or not reading the Torah by memory is only specific passages or it's any part of the Torah. So the halacha is that no part of the Torah, of the written Torah, which means the Torah, the prophets and the writings, no part of it should ever be recited by heart, which is why some people have an issue with songs that are sung from verses of the Torah, because you're not allowed to say the words of the Torah by heart and by singing a song of those words it's violating that prohibition. There are some opinions that say that that's not a problem when it's a song. There are other opinions that say that it is problematic and therefore they will not sing a song that has the words from the Torah or from the prophets or writings. Some say that it's more stringent regarding the five books of the Torah, not from the remaining 19 books of the prophets and writings. Again, each should follow their own custom. They should follow speak to your own local bona fide rabbi about that but in general, a word of the Torah should not be pronounced by heart but rather from inside the Torah scroll. So Tehillim is customary, that people do. We do see that many words of Psalms are sung and are pronounced without a book in front of us.

33:06
The majority, I would say, of Jewish songs in general are composed from the songs of psalms. King David wrote them as songs Mizmor shir, it's a mizmor, it is a psalm of song. So I assume that they didn't have a scroll in front of the congregation when they sang those songs with King David. But again, this is a very good question. In general, I would say that we should keep to the five books of Moses, genesis, exodus, leviticus, numbers and Deuteronomy To not say those verses by heart but from the prophets and writings. Again, if it's possible for us to look inside better to, but if not, then I'm sure there is an opinion that is lenient about this. All right, what's the next question? We're running way over time. We're gonna have to do a new class just for Ask Away. I love it.

33:59
Okay, so we're not supposed to touch the Torah scroll with our bare hands. We mentioned this in Simmon number 23 last week. We mentioned that you're not supposed to touch the Torah scroll with your hands. So what's about when we mention in Simmon 24 that you bend the parchment to take off the wax from it? That's an excellent question. So you could use it with a glove or you hold it with a talus, which is how generally a scroll is used. Now, regarding a scribe, it's not a Torah scroll. Till the last letter is written, the scribe can touch the parchment. Also, if he's handling a parchment and perfecting a letter or fixing it, that's because he's using it for the sake of enhancing the scroll. So that kind of touching is fine, but just general. We're not supposed to touch the scroll with our bare hands. The parchment does not become invalid if it was touched, and the parchment of tefillin and mezuzah are the same with regards to not being touched with our bare hands. Yes, so that's a great question. That is such a beautiful question.

35:10
What happens with your tefillin? On your hand there's a square box, but then there's another plastic box on top of it. The reason we have that plastic box on top of it is because we're supposed to cover that tefillin with our sleeve. We're not supposed to leave that beer. So what happens is if you put that sleeve on and off, and on and off, and on and off, eventually it will round the corners of the tefillin. That's why they have that protective plastic on top of it, so that it not wear out.

35:35
The tefillin of the hand, the tefillin of the head, is not being covered by anything, even the talus, by the way. The talus is not supposed to cover the complete tefillin, it's supposed to still be revealed. So the tefillin of the head is never being covered. Tefillin of the hand is being covered. It's not supposed to be uncovered and therefore it has that plastic protective square that should be kept on top. Now, if you're wearing short sleeves, that's okay. So that is what it is. If it falls off, you pick it up and you kiss it and put it back on. If you're in the middle of the Amidah, you don't pick it up, but if you're in part of the other parts of prayer, if you're in the middle of the other parts of prayer. You can pick it up, kiss it and put it back on. That's a great question.

36:26
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37:13 - Intro (Announcement)
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