Parshas Vayelech – Shabbos Shuva 5786 – Intriguing Questions & Answers

During the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, should one refrain from drinking chalav stam, just as people commonly refrain from eating pas palter?

Q:
I generally drink chalav stam, relying on the hechsher and Rav Moshe Feinstein’s heter, but I’ve been wondering whether it isn’t the same as pas palter, which people often don’t eat during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah. Should I be careful to only drink chalav Yisrael during these days?

A:
Chalav stam is gentile-produced milk that bears a hechsher attesting that its ingredients are kosher. Chalav Yisrael also bears a hechsher but, in addition, has been watched by a Jew from the time of milking to ensure that no pig’s milk has been blended into the batch. Rav Moshe Feinstein’s heter is based on the fact that modern-day, governmental regulation forbids blending pig’s milk with that of cows and can be relied upon to ensure the purity of cow’s milk.

Pas palter is bread produced by a non-Jewish commercial bakery with kosher ingredients. Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 603:1) states that even one who eats such bread throughout the year should refrain from doing so during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah and take care to consume only pas Yisrael, bread baked by a Jew.

Similarly, Chai Adam (klal 143) writes that it is fitting during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah to be stringent with things regarding which one is lenient throughout the year and that one who generally allows himself pas palter should therefore eat only pas Yisrael during these days.

The question is, should we apply this reasoning to chalav stam and regard it as something from which it is fitting to abstain during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah?

The Aruch Hashulchan (Orach Chaim 603:2) provides a fascinating perspective on the notion of refraining from pas palter during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah. Such stringency, he explains, is merely a hiddur, an opportunity to improve oneself spiritually through refraining from eating something that, מִן הַדִין, is completely permitted (as seen in Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah 112).

Yet what about items that some Poskim hold are assur מִן הַדִין (such as chadash in chutz l’aretz) but that a person might permit himself in accord with other Poskim who regard them as mutar מִן הַדִין? Such things, writes the Aruch Hashulchan, pose a problem. For temporarily adopting stringency regarding these items during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah would constitute not merely a hiddur but, rather, an acceptance of the opinion of those Poskim who maintain that they are assur מִן הַדִין. How could one then straightaway resume leniency following Yom Kippur, effectively now rejecting those Poskim’s position?

Chalav stam is one such item. Some Poskim maintain that it is assur מִן הַדִין and that one must therefore drink only chalav Yisrael (as presented in my sefer Ohel Yaakov, Laws of Chalav Yisrael, 115). Rav Moshe Feinstein, however, regards chalav stam as mutar מִן הַדִין and permits it provided it bears a hechsher attesting that its ingredients are kosher.

Though the Aruch Hashulchan doesn’t specifically mention chalav stam, we can infer from his insight that one should not be temporarily stringent and drink only chalav Yisrael during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah.

This is simply because the objectionable nature of implicitly accepting those authorities who regard chalav stam as assur מִן הַדִין only to then implicitly reject them following Yom Kippur outweighs a person’s intentions to improve spiritually, genuine and commendable though they certainly are.

If one damaged an esrog before purchase, must he reimburse the vendor?

Q:
It’s common practice at the arba minim market to take an esrog you’re thinking of buying and have it examined by a Rav. But I’m always worried that the high-priced esrog might slip out of my hands and become damaged. If it did ever fall and lose its pitom, would I have to pay the vendor for the esrog? Would I have to pay his full asking price?

A:
The halachah presented in Shulchan Aruch (Choshen Mishpat 378) dictates that a damager of property must reimburse the owner for any impairment or ruin he’s directly caused. In the scenario posed here, however, a person’s hands didn’t directly cause damage; rather, the esrog fell from his hands and was indirectly damaged upon contact with the ground.

This fact would therefore lead us to Choshen Mishpat 200:11, which discusses someone who takes a utensil from a vendor to see if it suits him and damages the item in the process. In this scenario, he must pay the vendor the utensil’s full cost even though the damage was accidental.

The halachah found in Pischei Teshuah (348:6) does, however, state that someone who steals a mehudar (exceptionally fine) esrog could exempt himself by returning any kosher esrog, even one that’s not mehudar (and therefore of lesser value than what he stole), which implies in our scenario that you needn’t reimburse the vendor for the damaged esrog’s full price. Yet the Chacham Tzvi (120) writes that the thief must pay the original price of the mehudar esrog, because the vendor’s intent was to profit a certain amount through a higher-priced esrog, not merely to provide a buyer with a kosher esrog.

Concurring with the Chacham Tzvi, most Poskim maintain that the thief can only absolve himself by paying the full price of the mehudar esrog he stole.

In our case, then, we must conclude that you’d have to reimburse the vendor for the ruined esrog’s full price.

Should you wash your hands in the morning next to the bed, even if the noise will wake up your wife?

Q:
When I wake up, should I wash my hands right next to the bed, even though the noise will disturb my wife’s sleep? Or would it be better to walk to the bathroom and wash there?

A:
This very common question is relevant not only to a husband’s relationship with his wife, but to a yeshiva bachur’s relationship with his roommates.

The Mishnah Berurah (1:2) discusses the importance of washing one’s hands in the morning immediately and near the bed, without traversing four amos, so as to remove a רוח רעה that settled upon them during sleep. Though he does mention that there are those who maintain that one’s entire house could be regarded as four amos, he cautions that this opinion should be relied upon only in pressing circumstances.

Regarding your house as four amos would allow you to leave the bedroom and wash your hands in a bathroom sink, yet many Poskim have taken the view that one should be stringent and wash hands near the bed, immediately upon awakening, just as many of the great men of Israel have always done.

Additionally, the Responsa Avnei Yusfeh (3:1) states that both Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, zt”l, and Rav Shmuel Wosner, zt”l, ruled that one should not leave the room to wash one’s hands but, rather, wash near one’s bed, even when doing so might wake up another person in the room.

Another interesting point to consider is that when a yeshiva bachur, for example, sets his alarm for an early hour and awakens long before his roommates, his intent is clearly to spend extra hours learning. This is a very commendable endeavor, so much so that his roommates would certainly applaud his initiative. And Shulchan Aruch (Choshen Mishpat 156:2) indeed states that when someone is making noise while performing a mitzvah, we have no claim against the disturbance, because we’re instinctively supportive of his mitzvah observance.

However, HaRav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, zt”l, maintained that today one may rely upon the leniency that one’s entire house is regarded as four amos. This is because he asserted that the Vilna Gaon revealed that the mesirus nefesh of the ger tzedek Avraham ben Avraham (Count Valentine Pototski, burned at the stake by the Catholic Church in 1749) triggered such a spiritual upheaval as to cause the רוח רעה to depart from the world. Moreover, Maran HaGaon Rabbi Avigdor Nebenzahl, shlit”a, wrote this in Rav Auerbach’s name.

Additionally, Rabbi Aharon Kotler, zt”l, Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, zt”l, and Rabbi Ephraim Greenblatt, zt”l, all ruled that it is permissible to leave the bedroom to wash one’s hands and that one should certainly do so when washing in the room might disturb another’s sleep.

Now, if you can safely assume that your wife’s support for your getting up early to learn and daven would instinctively override her annoyance at having her sleep disturbed, by all means wash your hands close to the bed. Otherwise, quietly head to the bathroom, and wash your hands there.