We’re pleased to share a new episode of “Lemaan Yishmeu,” the weekly halacha podcast with Rabbi Yosef Yeshaya Braun, Mara D’asra, and member of the Crown Heights Beis Din, brought to you by AskTheRav.com in partnership with the Lemaan Yilmedu Halacha Institute.

Each week, Rabbi Braun explores fascinating halachic questions across a wide range of practical topics — real inquiries that have reached his desk, along with his clear and insightful responses.

You can listen to the podcast on all major platforms, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, 24Six Amazon Music and Pocket Casts

The podcast is also available at https://asktherav.com/podcast/#ep15, where you can see extensive marei mekomos for the answers.

In this week’s episode, the topics discussed by Rabbi Braun include:

Kiddushin ring alternatives

• When the chassan’s ring is lost, is it preferable to use a borrowed ring or a coin?
• May a paper bill or contemporary coin, which have no intrinsic value, be used for kiddushin the way a valuable coin could?
• What are the halachic advantages of using a ring specifically?
• Is it an option to use both a coin and a borrowed ring together, or would that backfire?

Sending a Shabbos Goy to prevent a kashrus mishap

• May one ask a non-Jew to drive on Shabbos to warn people about milchig dessert at a sheva brachos?
• Can a non-Jew be asked to do a melacha d’oraisa for a mitzvah need?
• Does “michshol derabim” justify asking a non-Jew to do melacha?
• What is actually the true nature of the michshol in the case of an unknown milchig dessert or torn eruv?
• Does the possibility that one of the participants might be dangerously allergic to dairy create a pikuach nefesh justification?

Making up tachanun and v’hu rachum 

• If tachanun and v’hu rachum were skipped by mistake, e.g., in the mistaken belief that a bris would follow, must they be made up later, such as at mincha?
• Does the Alter Rebbe’s ruling that one who was genuinely exempt (as in a mourner’s home) need not make them up apply equally when the omission was simply an error?
• Does the status of v’hu rachum being a direct continuation to Shemoneh Esrei depend on the nusach, whether v’hu rachum is recited before or after tachanun?
• If the chazzan mistakenly recited Kaddish instead of tachanun, should he go back and say tachanun?

Mezuza placement on a side door

• For a side door, as opposed to the front door, is the mezuza placed according to heker tzir (the way the door opens)?
• Was the Rebbe’s printed response on this a definitive ruling, or did the Rebbe in fact leave the matter as an open question, illustrating the broader concern that printed ma’anos can contain copying errors?

“HaMerachem” vs. “VeHaMerachem” in Modim

• Why does the Chabad nusach say HaMerachem on weekdays but veHaMerachem on Shabbos and Yom Tov?
• Does the veHaMerachem form extend to the mussaf of Rosh Chodesh and Chol HaMoed?
• What variances in this regard do we know from the practice of the Rebbeim?

Eating meat during shiva and on Shabbos

• Is the practice in some communities to refrain from meat throughout shiva (beyond the period of aninus) a legitimate minhag, and would someone who kept it need hataras nedarim to eat meat?
• What is the common minhag in our circles regarding this?
• What is the significance of eating meat on Shabbos as an expression of simcha, such that we do so even when Tisha B’Av falls on Shabbos?

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