This certainly has been an exciting week.  What with the engagement party on Tues. night and the ...

We had it in a large private home in Har Noff. The Balas Ha Bayit was one of Sara's teachers from  her school in Ofakim.  Sara now works as night house mother for the American school in Jerusalem, Tiferet B'nos Yacov  in Sanhendria.  So 4 of her girls worked from  5 in the morning preparing for the Erusim.  It turned out so nicely decorated and arranged, and such yummy parve cuisine. I didn't recognize the Kala my daughter, she was so beautiful.  And the Chasan came in with many friends.  I bought one bottle of cheap scotch and an expensive bottle of wine.  I figured that with mostly a young Yeshiva crowd, they wouldn't know the difference, and would just want a healthy shot.  But wine is different. One bottle for the connoisseurs, and you could really taste the body of the grapes. The whole evening went very well. There was singing and dancing and words of Torah till after midnight.  Many of my dear friends  came by as the evening progressed and gave me and the couple their blessing.  I certainly am a rich man.

And now I would like to tell you a word of Torah that I have been working on a bit. 

Hilchot Shabbas, Siman raish mem tet, sif beit, : " It is forbidden to fix a meal or a drinking party that you wouldn't normally do on the days of the week.  And even a seudo Erusin( you may not do) because of Koved Shabbas, that you will enter Shabbas with a good appetite to eat. And all the day is in the forbidden category."  end quote of the Machaber. Now the Rama adds   " and a suedas Mitzva in its right time, such as a Brit Mila or a Pid yon ha ben, it is permissible to eat a festive meal on Erev Shabbas"    In the end, the Halacha is that the one should make the meal early in the day as when Purim falls on Erev Shabbas.  And in the Beur Halacha the Chofetz Chaim adds. " This is also the law when you finish a mesecta." ie : If  you finish a trakate of Gemorra on Erev Shabbas, Friday morning,  then it is permissible for you to make a seyum ( big meal, with food and drink) even though it is Erev Shabbas.  And if you look in sif Katan tet in the Mishna Brurer you will see the the halacha is that if a man and a woman officially become engage on Erev Shabbas then you are permitted to make the meal on Erev shabbas, and it becomes  like a mitzvah bez-man-no( In its right time) just like Brit Mila and Pidyon Ha ben.

So wish me luck, and Good Shabbas,  as the chasan is coming over for Shabbas, as well as many of my children and their children.  And that reminds me of one more thing. I started learning Hilchos Pu-ru- vu, in the Even Ha Ezer this week.  I'm learning in person from Rabbi Raphael Sadin from koltorah.com/sadin. Then its Kedushin and in 3 months time I can take the Rabbanute test, and if I pass, I can officially perform weddings.  In other words, I can be the officiating rabbi at my own daughters wedding on Lag Be'omer.  Imagine that.  So please have a really great Shabbat, and be in touch.

Its a Gefilta fish Shabbas.  That's what the Chasan says he likes. 

Rb. Yossi Ponak