Young Israel of Westside Shiurim

1. The name הונא in a dream means a miracle will happen. חנניה חנינא mean double miracles (נ stands for נס) 2. In a dream, answering Kadish means you go to olam haba, saying shema means you’re fit for prophecy, putting on Tefillin means you’ll be great, and in the middle of davening to HaShem is a good sign. 3. Someone (in a dream) who sleeps with his mother will get wisdom, sleeps with betrothed...

1. The Gemara records two stories about R' Yehoshua and Shmuel who were able to predict to Kings what they would dream about by placing thoughts in their head during the day and thereby causing them to echo these thoughts in their dreams. 2.Bar Hedya was an interpreter of dreams and if he was payed, he would interpret it nicely, but if he wasn't paid, he would say it meant something bad. Abaye and...

Do we build the mishkan first or the Aron? The depth of Betzalels name. The struggle between pragmatics and ideals.

1. It is commendable to pray a long tefillah, but it isn't good to expect the prayer to be answered. Rather, a person should increase his reliance on Hashems's mercy. It is good to have a long meal so it will increase the possibility of a poor man entering and eating. We derive that once the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, a person's table atones for them instead of the Altar. It is good to spend a...

1. One recites a bracha when he sees a place where miracles happened to the Jewish people. (there is also a bracha made when one sees a place where a personal miracles occurred to him specifically). The source for this bracha is derived from Yisro. There's also a bracha when seeing a place that idolatry has been uprooted. 2. When one sees earthquakes, thunder, winds, or lightning, theres a bracha...

1. One should be careful not to use besamim from a non Jew after Shabbos bc besamim were often used for idolatry and it is forbidden to benefit from them. 2. One cannot recite bracha on candle after Shabbos from fire that a non Jew lit on Shabbos, but one may use a candle that was lit permissibly on Shabbos for a sick person. Similarly, one may use a candle lit before Shabbos that was going the wh...

1. There are two versions of the dispute B’S and B’H regarding sequence of Havdalah when one is also saying Birchas Hamazon (he had only one cup of wine so he is using it both for birchas Hamazon of melave malka and havdalah. R Meir says that B’S says candle, birchas Hamazon, besamim, and havdalah. B’H says candle, besamim, birchas Hamazon, and havdalah. (Root of dispute is regarding where birchas...

1. Someone who has food in their mouth and realizes they forgot a bracha. If the food will not be repulsive if it is taken out, (like a lollipop) then it should be taken out, a bracha should be said, and then the food is eaten. If the food will become repulsive, then one moves it to the side of his mouth. By liquids, where there is impossible, one is forced to swallow the drink. 2. If one already...

1. The leader should include himself in the zimun blessing and say נברך instead of ברכו. 2. Better to say בטובו than מטובו , bc the mem limits they amount of good from Hashem. 3. In most requests we limit how much we ask HaShem but for Torah we ask in limitless bounds. 4. We say שאכלנו בשלו and not למי שאכלנו to recognize that it is only HaShem we are thanking. 5. We must be careful not to say על...

1. In the second bracha of Birchas Hamazon, there should be an opening of "nodeh"-thanks to Hashem and a closing of "hoda'ah"- thanks to Hashem. If one leaves out both, it is considered disgraceful. It is also wrong to conclude the blessing "Hashem, who gives lands," (bc it doesn't make Israel sound special) and wrong to conclude the third blessing with "Hashem, who saves the Jews." (more about th...

1. If 9 people ate bread and one had vegetables, they make a zimun with Hashem’s name. Same with 8 or 7 who ate bread and 2 or 3 ate vegetable. However, if 6 ate bread and 4 had vegetables, it is a dispute in the gemara. One opinion says there is zimun of 10 bc a majority ate bread, but a second opinion says there’s no zimun of 10 bc 6 is not a discernible majority. 2. After King Yannai murdered a...

1. Those who are sharing the same loaf of bread as the head of the household breaking the bread should not begin eating their portion of bread until the the head of the household tasted it first. 2. Two people sharing the same platter should wait for one another but 3 do not need if one takes a break. 3. The one who recited hamotzi is the one who gets food first but he can honor someone else to pa...

1.The head of household should be the one to break the bread so he breaks it generously and gives everyone large pieces. There is a dispute who should lead birches hamazon- some say it should be whoever broke the bread and some say it should specifically be a guest so that he will recite a special blessing given from a guest to a host. 2. The Gemara has a dispute how far zimun goes. (according to...

1. When 3 people eat bread together, they are obligated in zimun. 2. The rule that the meal has to be permitted food to obligate zimun, but forbidden food does not warrant zimun. 3. A non Jew, woman, or slave cannot be number 3 for the zimun. 4. A waiter who ate a cazayis can can be number 3 with two people he was serving. 5. The source that the number 3 brings people together to thank HaShem is ג...

1. There is a rule of ikar and tafel- that the bracha on the main food exempts the need for bracha on a food that accompanies it. Even bread can become a tafel in a rare case where one is eating special super sweet fruits that are countered with salty items that need bread to accompany them. 2. There is discussion about these amazing fruits of Genusar in Israel that are remarkably delicious. Israe...

1. The mishna said the rule is everyone must be reclining together for one person to be motzi others. That is for bread. What about wine? There are 3 opinions. One opinion is that wine is the same as bread. 2nd opinion is that for wine one persons can never be motzi others. 3rd opinion is that for wine one can be motzi others even if they’re sitting together and not reclining. 2. During meal itsel...

1. Pas hab׳ah bkisnin- the breads that are more like a pastry. Although they are really bread, since people generally do not make a meal out of them, the rabbis said to make mezonos and not to say birchas Hamazon. However, if one eats an amount of these pastries that is the amount of a full meal they are in fact required to say hamotzi and to bentsh. 2. Once one׳s mind is this the meal is finished...

When too much spirituality can be a disadvantage

1. There is a dispute between R Yehuda and the Rabanan regarding priority of brachos. R Yehuda says the 7 species come first and the Rabanan say the “Chaviv” comes first. 2. One opinion holds that their dispute is only when both foods are the same bracha, but when they are separate Brachos, for example a turnip that is chaviv and an olive, there is no dispute and all agree there is no correct orde...

1. One should not make a hefsek between hamotzi and eating bread. But speaking regarding the meal is not a hefsek. For example, take the bread. Bring salt. Prepare food for the oxen. 2. It is forbidden to eat before one feeds their animals. 3. One should not recite hamotzi for the table until there is salt/dips before each party so that they can enjoy their bread right away. 4. Urine does not full...

1. The size of cazayis for bracha achrona is the size of a medium olive. A big olive minus a pit would require a bracha achrona. 2. If there is a ha'dama food and a shehakol food that is "chaviv," the ha'adama food comes first bc its bracha is more important. Between two shehakol foods, a food that is "chaviv" generally has precedence, but if the other food is more filling, it is a dispute in the...

1. There is a concept of "bread" that is more of a pastry than bread like in the sense that it is not usually eaten as a staple of a meal and is therefore mezonos. But if one makes a meal out of it, it is hamotzi and benching. 2. Date honey is shehakol and is not treated like the fruit itself. But a solid from fruit that has been somewhat crushed but not completely mashed is haetz. 3. Shatisa (swe...

1.The Gemara rejects Rav and SHmuels's opinion that rice is not mezonos and proves conclusively that rice is in fact mezonos. 2. There is a dispute between R' Yochanan Ben Nuri and the Rabanan about rice, as R' Yochanan says it can be made into Halachic "bread," but the Rabbis disagree and say rice can never be considered "bread." 3. There is a fundamental dispute between R' Gamliel and the Rabana...

1. Wheat flour is a dispute if its haadama or shehakol. The root of the dispute is that the flour is a changed form from the grain itself. This is not analogous to the case of olive oil where the bracha is haetz even though the form changes from the olive, bc oil is the objective of why we plant olives and not a changed form. 2. Barley flour and raw pumpkins are shehakol bc they aren’t being eaten...

1. Fruits are העץ with the exception of wine. Vegetables are האדמה with the exception of bread. 2. R Yehuda holds that greens have special bracha of מיני דשאים. 3. What is the source for making a bracha? The gemara tries to develop a source from the soul of קדש הלילום לה׳ but it ultimately does not work. The source is logic that it is forbidden to derive pleasure from food without first thanking H...