Shiur Sukkah 12b 11/03/2020

BS”D

Suka 12b

Mar-Cheshvan 17, 5781. November 3rd, 2020

Some brief notes.

1- We continued the topic of the production of flax/linen and how it reflects in הלכה in using flax as סכך.

See here from the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch for the bottom line. 629, 5.

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2- We spoke about hemp, a plant similar to flax, from which fibers were historically extracted. The fibers were used to produce fabric and rope. The hemp’s leaves and flowers was/is used as a nutrient and the for the production of cannabis. See here. The fruit is eaten – Flax seeds.

2017: View Of Hemp Clothing (Marijuana Plant), Made In Nepal Stock Photo - Alamy

3- The Gemara in Zevachim, 18b, says that the material mentioned in the Chumash – כתונת בד קודש ילבש means flax.

Why? Because בד means singular, and the only plant that has a single stem growing from one seed is flax.

Flax plant – the many uses of the flax plant in the wild | Wilderness Arena

Now, the hemp plant also produces a single stem from each seed. That would mean that hemp, or canvas, is considered flax. Hence, it would be forbidden to be used together with wool. שעטנז.

$Satin / Canvas Fabric | Ramesh Exports$

But the Mishna says that ‘canvas’ is not considered flax and can indeed be mixed with wool.

More on this bl”n next week.

Road to 270: Choose potential paths to victory

4- It was election day in the USA so we spoke about the phenomenon of the eternal optimism of the Jew. Perhaps due to non-stop oppression and persecution a Jew was a natural to become a believer, clinger and proponent of movements that promised freedom in general, and freedom to practice Yiddishkeit in particular. These new movement’s strongest ‘chassidim’ were Jews being duped that the paradise promised will bring peace and tranquility.

U.S. 270

Unfortunately, these very movements, in a very short period of time from their formation, turned out to be nothing more than antisemitism redressed in a cloak of ‘social justice’ ‘equality for all’, etc.

5- We presented a copy of the אוצר דינים ומנהגים published first in 1917.

A Ukranian election poster in Yiddish from 1917 reads “Vote for the United Jewish Socialist Workers’ Party.”

This ספר was printed right after the Russian revolution and the world believed that a new era of freedom was forming in Russia. The Jew, having suffered the open antisemitism of the czars, immediately joined the ranks of the communists. The rest is history. The guns of the communist were turned onto the Jew and of course did not spare the die hard Jewish communists as well.

A banner of the Poale Zion Jewish Workers Party from around 1947 reads “Workers of All Nations, Unite.”

We as Lubavitchers know first hand what atrocities these liberal minded Jews brought upon their fellow brethren. The cruelty of the Yevsektzia is well documented, but in general Jews know very little about these ‘enlightened’ individuals that caused imprisonment and murder of countless Chassidim and basically obliterated Yidishkeit from the millions of Russian Jews.

Tragically, early Zionist considered Russia as their ‘second homeland’ and mourned Stalin YMS when he died! See here. Here.

The prolific author, Rabbi Yehuda Dovid Eizenstein, dedicated his book to ‘the New Russia’. Interesting to note that he was born in Mezritch!

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