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/#ep23, where you can see extensive marei mekomos for the answers.

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

Dips and salads on the table before Kiddush

•         Should the dips, salads, and other foods be on the Shabbos table before Kiddush, or brought only after it?

•         If they are on the table before Kiddush, must they be covered like the challah?

•         Does the reason given by the She’iltos, that the meal should be brought in honor of Shabbos, apply to all the food or only to the bread?

•         What can be learned from the Seder night, when the kaarah is set up before Kiddush with only the matzos covered?

Talking during sheva brachos at a wedding

•         At a wedding, may one talk between bentching and the end of the sheva brachos?

•         Is sheva brachos an obligation on each individual present, or only on the group as a whole?

•         May guests leave the wedding meal before sheva brachos, whether or not they make their own zimun?

•         No one is supposed to talk from when the one leading bentching picks up the kos until he says hagafen. Does that rule cover the sheva brachos too?

How long a bracha on food lasts

•         At what point does a bracha on food expire, so that more food needs a new bracha rishona and it’s too late for a bracha acharona?

•         After eating only a small amount, must the bracha acharona be said immediately, or is there a window of a few minutes?

•         What should one do if unsure whether the original bracha has expired?

•         Is it true that one generally has 72 minutes to say a bracha acharona?

Accompanying a widowed mother to a wedding during the year of aveilus

•         May a woman in the year of aveilus for her father go to a wedding because her widowed mother wants her to drive her and sit with her?

•         Which comes first: kibbud em for the living mother, or kibbud av for the father who passed away?

•         Is this like a parent asking a child to violate halacha, where there is no obligation of kibbud av va’em?

•         Since the child is there to help the mother, are they like a waiter working at the simcha?

Measuring the place of the tefillin shel yad on a bar mitzvah boy

•         On a bar mitzvah boy, should the spot for the tefillin shel yad be measured with his arm stretched out or bent?

•         Since Chabad tefillin are large, should smaller bar mitzvah boys get smaller batim so they fit in the right place?

•         Must the entire tefillin sit within that spot, or may the ma’avarta extend beyond it?

Showering in the mikvah on Shabbos and Yom Tov

•         May one take a cold shower in the mikvah on Shabbos or Yom Tov?

•         How can a “cold” shower still involve bishul or other melachos, given how water tanks, single-lever mixers, and tankless heaters work?

•         Where does the minhag not to bathe even in cold water on Shabbos come from, and how binding is it?

•         Is there room to be lenient for someone in great discomfort (tza’ar gadol), and does it matter if the shower is private or public?

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