Shnayim mamtinin, two people waiting. Yesterday we were talking about bread, actually, and going to Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law). The next pesak (halachic ruling) was not wrong, because we’re going to talk about this now: Shnayim mamtinin zeh lazeh b'ke'arah, sheloshah ein mamtinin (three do not wait). So if you have two people who wait for one another to eat, that’s derech eretz (proper conduct), I guess. Three don’t have to.
If two people are eating at one table and sharing one plate, and one starts drinking, the other has to stop eating while he’s drinking. Today we have each one our plate. This isn’t a mayona. That’s one for the other; otherwise, the food will disappear. If you have a platter, a meat platter, or you go to a restaurant and say, “We’ll share a dish,” that’s the kind of situation. If someone goes to the bathroom, we don’t all wait for him to come back. That’s not our etiquette today. Alma d'shikra (world of falsehood). We don’t drink like that.
But Mishnah Berurah says, “Ruh sheh lo yeh shehi yatan harbeh.” So we’re talking about when people mamtinin. Even if the person stops eating to drink something, you have to stop eating too. It’s not only before you start eating; it’s also while you’re eating. He adds, “Why not? Because you’re going to make them wait.” The Mishnah Berurah says, “Even if you follow the way of the Mishnah of every generation, from everywhere, things that were decreed by Chazal (the Sages) remain for generations. Therefore, even if you follow the way of most people to eat in the market, you will not be offended by this.” In Rabi, it’s like the market. He will turn his face to the other side.
Water, no, but the rest, yes. They drink very little. You know where we learned that? In the teshuvot (rabbinic responsa) of the Italian rabbis. On Shabbat we spoke about the Italian minhag (custom) of drinking. One of the sevarot (reasons) was that if people didn’t drink wine, it seems they didn’t drink water. Imagine, a lot of the time, the water wasn’t filtered. It was cool. I don’t know; maybe they did filter the water. The point is that they didn’t drink water. Maybe it tasted disgusting. Wine wasn’t readily available; they made it on foot, but they didn’t have it. He says you don’t drink wine. You should say, “Drink slowly”—I don’t know. Besides, the Gemara says that if you drink too many sips, it’s derech ge'alah (a repulsive manner). Never good.
My Rosh Yeshiva, when he blows his nose, he turns. He turns like this. You would never do it in front of anyone. That I've seen many times.
What’s interesting is the note he brings from Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach: although things change, it’s like Takanat Chazal (an enactment of the Sages). Sorry, it doesn’t sound like a Takanah (enactment); it’s more like... That’s what they did back then, but today, if it does change, it should change. He discusses eating in the street and all that, being out in public, and then people hanging out in the street. No, it’s not refined. It’s very nice. It’s like a dog, a shawarma like this. Yeah, yeah, but drinking in the street is thirsty, laughing in the street, it’s weird.
Ha-botzea poshet yado techilah (the one who breaks bread extends his hand first). So the one who does betzi'ah (breaking bread)—back to the ha-botzea (the one who breaks bread). What are we talking about here? Again, the same discussion as yesterday: the food, right? Before we actually eat, if the ha-botzea is about the bread, fine. But now we’re talking about the rest of the food. No, hamotzi (the blessing over bread) is hamotzi; he goes first to eat. To the rest of the food? To the rest of the food. What we said yesterday was true, but not in the previous text. It’s in this text. That’s another one.
When the person says hamotzi, he eats first. You do that? No, because we eat before hamotzi. Yeah, we already have a good dosha. We already eat. If he wants to honor his rabbi, or whoever is more chashuv (important) than him, he could do that. Why didn’t he give him two hamotzi? We already learned that he should have hamotzi. If it’s for the ba'al habayit (head of the household), he should do hamotzi. Still, people who are makpid (careful) give him the hamotzi. It’s not okay. Because it’s not asur (forbidden). Also, the reason for it is that they give small...
So he was busy making, I think, the khatunavi, so he was there first and sat down. He was waiting. Every day he was teaching his son, and about Sarah shyly. The anecdotal passage is unclear. It’s interesting why you would think that, because if you said it, even without saying it—if you say it, it’s as if you said it. So if you cut the bread before they finish saying the Beracha (blessing), it’s as if they said a Beracha on bread that was already cut.
What’s unusual is that they have to wait for all of them to answer Amen (Amen). He should have said, “One Amen is sufficient.” One person who answers Amen should be bikafi; it should be enough. Why do you have to wait for everybody to answer Amen? Because it’s part of the Rav HaOnim. The question is why. No, because look what he says. Rashi says it’s part of the Beracha. So since it’s part of the Beracha, you have to wait until everybody says Amen. But if I don’t want to say Amen, I’m sitting here for 10 minutes not to answer your Amen? So I don’t give you bread.
Interesting, though: Kadim means that the minhag was that the chatan (groom) was supposed to do the hamotzi. That’s what Rashi said. But you don’t find this Beracha in Yitzchak. If Yitzchak is the chatan and the age is short and the problem is the teacher, what will he do? He will teach him how to do it. You don’t find any place that’s a robot in my man. I was going to ask: does it apply to the whole meal? We do several courses, right? You have to always have the barbite. It’s first. Nobody says, “I eat first here,” according to Rashi. No, only something that comes lafayette. So the little ensaladitas, maybe. But it’s the main course. We do a buffet in my house, so it’s open; eat whenever you want.
Why did you have to have? Because they are saying the Beracha; that’s what it means. If you say it before, it’s as if they cut the bread before the Beracha was said. Then he tells him, “No, he’s not happy with that.” The rovit, because the Beracha didn’t finish. The miwut, also something. You’re saying Amen too long? We got it; we know what it is. So if it’s too long, it’s his tohe? He makes a mistake. The Gemara sugya (Talmudic discussion) is going on that very famous sugya. All that stuff—we don’t do any of these Amens. What is each one saying?
This is Rashi HaKadosh (Rashi, may he be sanctified): chatufah—you are swallowing the alef (the first Hebrew letter). Many people say Amen like this. Amen? No, it’s Amen. It’s like you’re almost falling in the air. Shekorin et ha'alef bechataf (they pronounce the alef hastily), and he says Amen, and he has to say Amen. Rashi says alef, mem, nun, and he has to say alef, mem, nun. Why did he have to add this? The Ashkenazim say Omein. Omein or Amen? Omein. So why does Rashi say b'patach (patach vowel)? Should it be kamatz (kamatz vowel)? They say, “Oh, it’s Chassidish (Hasidic).” Look, Mesorat HaShas, peirush (explanation), kamatz. He says patach, peirush, kamatz.
Vechen itah b'Nimukei Yosef (And so it is stated in Nimukei Yosef). Amen. There is a phrase that you can say in chataf patach, and you have to say it in a big vowel. And to say it in a big vowel, there is chataf patach. Chataf patach could be patach or sheva (sheva vowel), whatever you want. So: Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen. There is a Persian guy who comes to our cinema sometimes. He says, “Amen,” but it’s like a long A, almost like an I. The A of the Persian is not A; it’s not O, it’s in the middle. Amen.
That’s how they teach dikduk (Hebrew grammar). That’s how they taught us. I don’t know which one is gadol (large) and which one is katan (small), and all that. No agdola and no agtena. I don’t know; we learned by heart. I honestly hated dikduk, but I knew so much dikduk from school. I’m talking about when I was 8 years old, 9 years old, 10 years old. He had a good teacher. I remember everything—the seven things. I learned all these things. I was a bad student, but those teachers were amazing. Every class had between 30 and 35 students. There was no helper. It didn't exist to help. When I came to this country the first time, you know, in Mexico I was here before this country, the first time I heard about the concept helper. What, a helper? You have a teacher take care of the class, 30 to 35 children, any grade—not all the grades, any grade—and the principal to come to the room. If the principal came to the room, we thought it was a hurricane coming. My Hebrew is only from that. I never lived in Israel, ever. I speak fluently—not perfectly, and I’m missing words, sure, but I speak fluently. I never lived in Israel or studied in Israel, and I barely went on vacation in Israel. I spent my summer there, zero. It was all from school, three years. Bumaf, Alef Keresh, Ein Kuf, the Gronhot, all these things. Beged Kefet (six Hebrew letters with two sounds), shoresh (root), Dagesh Katan (small dagesh), Dagesh Gadol (large dagesh), Noar Dolat, Noar...
No, they teach in the modern Hebrew, but it's the same. Dikduk. It's very interesting. It was modern Hebrew. Dikduk was the Hebrew teacher.
I did the whole high school there, so the level we had coming out of high school is probably like the people who finish college.
I remember they were still studying anatomy and studying things that the boys, nothing. We had a lab in the school. We had real chemistry. Real. Biology was real. Everything was real. We had two math teachers. Geometry was different than algebra. Two different teachers. Pre-algebra, algebra we had, but it was a different teacher. In ninth grade I was doing algebra and I was doing chemistry and physics. I didn't do chemistry and physics until I got to college.
Geometry I was doing trigonometry in ninth grade in Venezuela. I didn't do trigonometry until I was here in college. Yeah, so I'm right. College here is like high school, catch up all the years that you've been doing. All right, no, we learned a lot philosophy. There's a philosophy course here because philosophy course, it was mandatory, it's not an option. Economics, we don't—all these things, the difference between socialism, capitalism, all these things, like death. We had tests, tests, tests on this stuff. You have to know Marxism.