Hilchos Mezuzah: Summer Bungalows, Thirty-Day Rentals, and When the Chiyuv Begins

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Discuss Hilchos Mezuzah and a specific topic in Hilchos Mezuzah, and that is, as we approach the summer, people go to bungalows in the colonies. Does a bungalow need a mezuzah? And if it does, when do you have to put on the mezuzah? And a lot of interesting nekudos in Hilchos Mezuzah will come up through the progression of the shiur. So let's begin with the chiyuv of putting up a mezuzah in Chutz La'aretz on a home. So this is in Reish Pei Vav, סעיף ח', that there's a difference between renting and buying. השוכר בית בחוץ לארץ, ריש פו סעיף ח', השוכר בית בחוץ לארץ, והדר בפונדק בארץ ישראל, פטור מן המזוזה שלושים יום. You're patur from a mezuzah for thirty days. והשוכר בית בארץ ישראל חייב במזוזה מיד משום יישוב ארץ ישראל. It's based on a Gemara in Menachos, daf mem daled amud aleph, that there is a difference between kniyah and sechirah, buying and renting a home in Eretz Yisrael and in Chutz La'aretz, לגבי the chiyuv mezuzah. When you buy, as we soon will get to in the shiur, you always have to put up a mezuzah right away. There's a mistake that people walk around saying, Oh, I have 30 days to put up a mezuzah. It's not true. When you buy a house, you're mechuyiv to put up a mezuzah as soon as you move in. Now, what's called moving in, we're going to have to discuss through the poskim what's called moving in. This that people talk about 30 days is because by sechirus, renting only in Chutz La'aretz, you have 30 days to put up a mezuzah. In Eretz Yisrael, they don't give you the 30 days; it has to be put up right away, and that is because of mitzvas yishuv Eretz Yisrael. It's permanent. We want that you buy, you stay, it should be sold. Now, how does putting up a mezuzah help you yishuv Eretz Yisrael, that it should be final? I guess it must have cost a lot of money to put up mezuzahs, and if you went out and bought the mezuzahs and paid all that money, you're going to stay. It wouldn't be worth moving out. Iyun Rashi on the Gemara Menachos, daf daled amud aleph, al kol panim, that's the halacha. So it would come out that in Chutz La'aretz, if I'm not planning on staying 30 days in my rented apartment, I'd be patur. The chiyuv begins 30 days. I'm not there for 30 days, I'd be patur. So if someone comes to a bungalow and he is renting the bungalow, because if he's buying the bungalow, then he has to put up the mezuzah right away. Today, bungalows are sometimes bought. In other words, at the kufa where it was only rented, people would rent. Today, everybody wants to buy it; it's like a summer home. So you'd be mechuyiv to put up the mezuzah right away. Later on in the shiur, we'll explain that that's not so poshut, that maybe bichlal a bungalow, the way we understand bungalows—not a home like a regular house in the mountains, but a bungalow—might not need a mezuzah, period, at all. We'll discuss that a little bit later. But once they get to the schirus in the shloshim yom, if you're going to put up a mezuzah and you hold that a bungalow needs a mezuzah, so within 30 days that you only plan on being there for a week, two, three, three weeks, and five days, no mezuzah. You're not mechuyiv to put up a mezuzah. The question would be by schirus, if I know that I plan on staying longer than 30 days, do I need to put up right away a mezuzah? You have 30 days to put up a mezuzah, but what happens if I originally know when I moved in—I rented, I moved in—knowing that it's going to be more than 30 days, it's long term, for a year, let's say. Do I put up a mezuzah right away? The Aruch HaShulchan in siman reish pei-vav, se'if katan mem-tes, says that you do have to put up a mezuzah right away. There's a Pischei Teshuva, I think it's se'if katan...

Chavches, it's mashma not that way. It's a big ra'ayah in Acharonim. There's one of the famous shailas that if someone moves into a house, an apartment, he knows it's long term, so even though it's only schirus, you should have to put it up right away. Rishivas Hatzar, Rav Moshe, in Yoreh Deah chelek aleph, siman kuf ayin tes, discusses this diyun of the Acharonim: do you have to put it up right away or not? And he comes up with this hachra'ah, and he says that if it's a regular apartment in the city, then you should put up the mezuzah right away, since you know you're going to be there for more than thirty days. But if it's a bungalow—and I tell you, a bungalow in general is not so simple that you're mechuyav bichlal in a mezuzah. Rav Henkin zatzal held that way, that it's possible that a bungalow inherently is a diras arai. It's not really a—it's not meant to be an apartment. It's meant to be a place to stay in the summer. So you'd be better off, says the Rishivas Hatzar, without quoting Rav Henkin, better off to wait the thirty days and then put up the mezuzah. So if you move into a regular apartment in the city, knowing that it's for more than thirty days, you put it up right away. And if it's in a bungalow, you should put it up after thirty days. Many Acharonim—I heard this from Rebelsky, if I'm not mistaken—said that could be today the schirus in chutz la'aretz, thirty days doesn't apply so much. Why? Because in the olden days, schirus, you know, he was able to evict you after the thirty days. So once you're there for thirty days, it's kavua, set. But today there's something called the lease, which means that when you rent, and even though it's only for 30, you know, even though it's 30 days that you aren't there, but you know you're going to be there for a whole year because the lease is for a year, and there's no way for you to break that lease. So actually, the Acharonim, who are mistapek if you should put the mezuzah right away, knowing you're there long term, will hold definitely you should put up a mezuzah, because today it's pretty much guaranteed that when you go in, you're going to be there a whole year. So this is, like I said, the get to a regular apartment, and the question is going to be, what do we do with the bungalow? Okay, now let's talk about buying. This is all about sechirus so far. Buying, like I said, people have this mistake that they say that 30 days I have to have to put up a mezuzah. It's not true. As soon as you buy, you're mechuyiv to put up a mezuzah. The question is, the minute I sign the lease I have to put up a mezuzah? No. It's chovas hadar. You have to live there. Mishnah Berurah in siman yud tes se'if katan daled says clearly, she'ein levarech rak shehu nichnas ladur babayis teikef u'miyad, that when you move in to live there, then you have to right away put up the mezuzah with a bracha. The question is, what's called nichnas ladur, moving in to live there? Some poskim say that it means to sleep. When it says moving in to live, live means sleeping. Other poskim say it means eating. That if I eat there, that's called moving in. Yet there's another tzad in the poskim, and I think Rabbi Elyashiv and most Acharonim follow that, is the moving in of the furniture. When I start moving in the furniture, that's already called I moved in. I'm not clear which furniture. It seems like most Acharonim say the moment you bring in your furniture, that's called you moved in, and you're mechuyiv mezuzah with a bracha. But which furniture? A lot of times they deliver the washing machine, dryer, and maybe refrigerator, but the beds and the, what do they call, the breakfront, that they didn't bring in yet. So which part of the house furniture is kovea I moved my furniture in? Maybe if I just bring in a table, it's good enough. Okay, table is about eating; eating is the... Or how about maybe it's the sleeping, so maybe the bed furniture. It's not clear to me. I'm not sure. But I could tell you that most Acharonim say that in case you move in the furniture, it would be כדאי to eat something there. Maybe you take a small little nap, unless maybe a nap by day doesn't count; it has to be sleeping even at night. But the more you move in, the more clear it becomes.

You moved in that you're mechuyiv to put up the mezuzah, so the more you could do, the better. Like I said, maybe if you just bring in one piece of furniture, sheneich gut. It's also good, maybe. Or maybe not. Maybe you have to bring in most of your furniture, or maybe you have to bring in the living furniture, like the beds. I don't know. I'm not clear in this hachra'ah in this halacha. But the she'eilah is a good one, okay? So the olam, here's the she'eilah: the chiyuv to put up a mezuzah is when you buy is right away, but it doesn't mean right away. It's right away when you move in. What's called moving in is a big machlokes. Some say moving in means sleeping. Some say moving in means eating. Others say it means to bring in the furniture. I don't know what furniture. And when we say eating, do we mean snacking? Like if I came and I, I don't know. Let's say I move in the furniture. While I'm moving in the furniture, I take a donut. Is that called eating? Maybe a meal. Maybe I have to wash, start clearing a meal. Let's say I ate a pizza and I didn't wash. I don't know. According to the tzad sleeping, maybe if I took a nap, is that nap by day maybe not called sleeping? Then I shailos, all right? My hachra'ah would be, as I say, miyois tov, the more you could do from all of the above, that it should be considered that you moved in, the better, and you should try to do it all together like this. When you put up the mezuzah, you make the bracha, you are yotzei the chiyuv for the right time l'chol hadeios. What happens if a person... Moves into an apartment. It's on trial. He doesn't know. I mean, he's not sure. Maybe he'll stay. Maybe the balabos will tell him to go. It's a trial period. So some say, listen, that's the din of schirus. You have 30 days, right? Maybe it's not official till then. But here you bought. Let's say, I don't know if there is such a metzius, really. Let's say you bought the apartment on a trial of 30 days. I don't know if there is such a metzius, but on schirus it could happen, right? You're renting on a trial basis. Do you have to put up a mezuzah right away? Now you have to know why there's a chiyuv by schirus to put up a mezuzah. Pashtus, it could have to do with schirus. Kanya, not kanya, but that's not what's accepted reason in halacha. The accepted reason in halacha is ma'aris ayin. The Rabbanan, you're mechuyiv to put it up because of maris ayin. You're moving in. It plays a big role in understanding a lot of the halachas and the applications of these halachas. Wherever people think that you moved in and that it's your place, you need to put up a mezuzah. So it's very possible that the chiyuv of maris ayin will be mechayev the trailer, the one who goes in for less than 30 days—I'm sorry, the one who goes in for 30 days on trial to stay—he might have to put up a mezuzah for maris ayin. Ah, so the shaila is the bracha. So possibly, and we're going to discuss this, whenever you're in doubt about when you should make the bracha, you put up the mezuzah, and then when the time of chiyuv for sure to make the bracha comes, you memashmesh, you move around the mezuzah. Rav Shiva Ramoisha brings this in the teshuvos, I think it's chelek aleph, siman kuf ayin tes. He says that you should, best of all, remove the mezuzah. Put it back on and make a bracha. Can't do that. If you can't do that, then the mashmish. You know, by tefillin we have the sugya of memashmesh, that you move it around and you can make a bracha. So here too, you would move it a little bit, the mezuzah, and make the bracha. So this, mistama, would be the right hachra'ah, that if a person moved in on trial, will he or won't he stay, puts up the mezuzah right away. Ma'aras ayin, for sure, is an issue and he should put it up right away. And the bracha he makes after thirty days by either removing it or, lefachot, moving it around, memashmesh. Okay. Over the years, I have received a lot of these shailas about putting up the mezuzah in the bungalow, and a lot want to put up right away. They want to, you know, they're itchy to put up the mezuzah right away. Now why is that? Could be, you know, yiras Shamayim, halacha, are they mechuyav, not mechuyav. Like I said, Rav Moshe had a safek, maybe you should be mechuyav right away, and he says no, okay, by a bungalow you should wait. Some of it is fear. You know, they look...

The mezuzah as a shmira. Who wants to stay in the mountains, you know, especially if you're the first group that goes up to the bungalow. You know, it's pretty desolate. You're afraid, you know. The women are afraid. They're afraid of the bears, right? Human and non-human bears, they're afraid. So they want what? They want to put up a mezuzah for shmira. And then there's a third group that has this spooky feeling of being in a house without a mezuzah. Who knows what's going to happen to me, right? So therefore people want to put up the mezuzah early. So if that's the case, so okay, like I said, Rosh Yeshiva held better by a bungalow or not. So an apartment, you put it up right—when do you make the bracha? That's a nice question. You're putting up the mezuzah, should you make the bracha before the 30 days? Soicher, someone rents an apartment, and he's putting up the mezuzah early. When should you make the bracha? Reb Akiva Eiger in siman kuf pei vav, se'if katan chaf beis says you can make the bracha right away as soon as you move in. Not only could you put up the mezuzah right away, but you could even make the bracha as well right away. A lot of Acharonim argue on this Reb Akiva Eiger, and they say, But what do you mean? You're not sure of the chiyuv. I mean, you're putting it up, and at the 30th day maybe it starts the chiyuv, right? So many Acharonim say that what you should do is put up the mezuzah and not make the bracha. Make the bracha on the 30th day. Like I said, the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Moshe in the Teshuvos writes that there's two methods on how to deal with the bracha if you already put up the mezuzah. Either you remove the mezuzah, or you memashmesh. You move around the mezuzah. Okay. I'd like to discuss interesting shailas that came up in this topic of mezuzah, from bayis schirus, bayis kanui, and the bungalow. You know, you have 30 days, then you're mechuyiv. So what does that mean? It means the 31st day, which means the night of the 31st is when you have to put up the mezuzah. What happens if you reached the bungalow, or the apartment you're moving into, a few minutes before shkiah? Or for that matter, even better, after shkiah. When do we look at the 31st day that you should be mechuyiv with a bracha? I mean, let's say it's a few minutes before shkiah, or a few minutes after shkiah. So what was day one? Those few minutes? It's a nice shaila. So pashut, even if I moved in five minutes before shkiah, like by Hilchos Niddah, it's called a day. So here too it's called a day. So you have day one would be those five minutes, and then 30 days later, right, you would have to put up the mezuzah. But what happens if it's a few minutes after shkiah? We know, for example, in Hilchos Niddah, you have nine minutes according to Rav Shiva Zatzal, right? So here it's a shaila of a de'oraisa bracha, unless you hold like Rav Kiveiger that you can anyway make a bracha earlier, so who cares, right? According to Rav Kiveiger, you can actually make a bracha even if you put up early anyway, so who cares, before shkiah, after shkiah, you want to put up early, put up early. But when are you mechuyiv? It's a nice question. When would I be mechuyiv? Or maybe I have all the way till tzeis. Elamai, it's only a safek. Yeah, but it's, like I said, what do you have to lose by putting it up early and making a bracha? You have nothing to lose. So maybe, or what I should do is put it up and then make the bracha on the vadai 31st. That's a nice shaila. It's a nice halachic shaila, which not klar in the acharonim, at least not what I've seen. You hear the study of shaila? It's a very interesting shaila. Pashut is before shkiah, that's whatever it is, even two minutes is day one. Ask a person, how can you have a two-minute day? That's it, you got it right there. In Hilchos Mezuzah, if he came two minutes before shkiah, day one. Same it's in Hilchos Niddah that way, right? Day one, two minutes before. Shai. Question is after shkiah, and how much after shkiah? Okay, so you know what? We could take it and say like this: you could anyway do it earlier, right? You can anyway do it earlier. Yeah, but then you have a shaila of a bracha. So maybe you should put it up earlier and make the bracha when it's vadai, right? It's a nice... All right. What happens if the 30th day is Shabbos? So you can't put up the mezuzah. So should you go early or should you go late? It's a nice shaila. Should I do it Friday?

You like this sefer, the same sefer. So the truth is, I have a friend that put out a sefer on Hilchos Mezuzah, Reb Eli Weinbaum shlita, a Torahing Yid, very chashuv a mensh. He had a lot of shimush from Rav Tuvia Goldstein. So in that sefer, he writes that you should actually do it after Shabbos. He brings some Acharonim, and I know that Rabbi Felder from Philadelphia is a acharon l'vracha, zecher tzaddik livracha. He was a talmid of Rav Moshe, Rosh Yeshiva at TAL, and in his sefer he writes the opposite, that you should do it actually before. The nidon ha'she'eilah is this: do we follow the Reb Akiva Eiger, because you can anyway do it before with a bracha, or better to do it later because the whole before is a whole big she'eilah if you should do it before, and if you're allowed to do it before, right? So that would be the tzadei ha'she'eilah: if day 30th is Shabbos, should I go early or should I go late? Okay. One of the cases that are brought in Shulchan Aruch, v'hadar b'pundak b'Eretz Yisrael. Hadar b'pundak—pundak is a hotel-motel. So someone lives in a hotel-motel in Eretz Yisrael, patur mi'mezuzah shloshim yom. How about dar b'pundak in Chutz La'aretz? Unclear, right? Hasocher bayis b'chutz la'aretz v'hadar b'pundak b'Eretz Yisrael. So pashut, hadar b'pundak would be chayav everywhere, right? Even though the chiddush is only that dar b'pundak is patur shloshim yom, because I guess there you don't have the sugya of yishuv Eretz Yisrael. But a dar b'pundak, if someone lives in a motel, hotel, or whatever it is, so then you would have to put up a mezuzah. In Chutz La'aretz, after 30 days as well. What happens if someone is in a hospital room for more than 30 days? If someone is in an old age home, they put him. So today, Baruch Hashem, we have old age homes which are Jewish, owned by Jewish people, and they usually have mezuzahs, most of these places and all the rooms. But let's say not. Let's say for whatever reason he needed a special therapy, special, right, exercise or whatever, a special doctor, so they brought him to an old age home or a rehabilitation home, and he's there for more than 30 days. Should he put up a mezuzah? Hadar b'pundik, a motel, hotel, you put up a mezuzah. Two issues, and I spoke this over with Rav Belsky, Rav Ariches. I don't know. Pundik is, I rent a room. In a hospital, I rented a room. Is that called renting a room? I pay to use the room. I don't rent the room. Now in a hospital, they can move you around whenever they want. Now in these old age homes, maybe also. Hasoicher, what happens if they can move you around? What happens if they can get rid of you in the middle of the month? Or hadar b'pundik, does it make a difference if they could tell you, get up and go to another room? These are all very good questions. My inner feeling, so to speak, my libi omer li, libi omer li, that the hospital and the old age home is not called dar b'pundik. You rent a room; it's your room. You come to these places, you're paying, but it's usage. You're paying for usage to use the room. So I would say that you probably, again, I could hear where some machlokes can say, no, it's the same thing as dar b'pundik, that you'd be mechuyav toa to— Put up a mezuzah. In lomdus of the sugya, I think there's a chiluk between soicher, especially the mares ayin sugya is more. What's mares ayin? Mares ayin, if you hold it's mares ayin, nobody thinks that you live here. I know many acharonim say that you would have to maybe put there for long term in these type of places. I'm not so sure about it. Now I'll tell you how this is nogea. There's a whole shaylah if a bungalow bichlal needs a mezuzah. I'll tell you from Rav Henkin that you don't need a mezuzah. You don't need a mezuzah. Now he didn't tell you not to put up a mezuzah. He held you should put up a mezuzah, but it's nogea if you're allowed to take off the mezuzahs. There was a time and a place where people didn't want to leave the mezuzahs for a few reasons. One is vandalism. You know, when they left the bungalows, you know, anything, you know, people came, all these hillbillies that live up there in the mountains, you know, they came, they rampaged. They also weather. Weather, you know, it could ruin the mezuzah in the front, you know, rains and storm and winter. So they wanted to take—Rav Henkin held you could take off the mezuzahs, because since it's a diras arai, it's not called a dirah.

Okay. So we have a tremendous yesod about what's called a diras arai. Now why is it arai? Because it's only meant for the summer. Where is this negea? A lot of times people go like Vermont, or they go to—where's the other place they go? Connecticut? Not Connecticut, huh? New Hampshire, Virginia. They go for more than a month, and they're renting apartments, so to speak. Are you mechuyiv in mezuzah? I never saw anyone put up a mezuzah there. So most of them don't go for a month. Most people don't. The way it is, these, maybe one day it'll change, but in the meantime people don't go for a week, two weeks, three weeks. But there are people that go for a full month, especially those that go there to run the programs in these places. Are you mechuyiv to put up a mezuzah? I never saw anyone do it. I don't even know if the guy would even let you do it. I don't know whether you're supposed to hack a mezuzah into the wall. I don't know if he would even let you. Maybe, maybe these places are not rented as a rental, but it's rental of usage. They're letting me be there. I think you can be mechalek. Again, it's more of a chiddush than the hospital case and than the old age home. But yet the sevara might be also the same: I'm not renting an apartment. I'm paying for usage. They have apartments, and I'm using it. It's a fine line, but maybe. And I'll tell you where this is negea. I'll tell you an interesting case, yeah? A lot of times in a camp, they'll hire a head counselor, a bochur, somebody, yeah, and/or a family that just got married, whatever, hired head counselor, hired nurse. And they throw in a shack, a bungalow, like, you know, these little junk shacks. You'll stay there. That's where you'll stay. So are you mechuyiv to put up a mezuzah? It's a summer thing, so it's very arai, because it's only for the summer. You have Rav Henkin's psak. The question is, is it mine? Now, I didn't pay for it. I'm not paying in any way, shape, or form for it. Yeah, but I'm there. I'm living there. Or maybe we could say it is mine, and it's worse than schirus. It might be kniyah. Why? Because since it has to do with the salary, let's say they give you a thousand dollars for the summer for what you worked, and they'll say, you know what? Really, we should be giving you two thousand. So one thousand will go for food and the shack. So then you actually pay for it in a roundabout way, because they're deducting it from your salary. So then it's koneh bayis, and koneh bayis, you would have to put up a mezuzah right away. You don't even have the thirty days. And beis, b, you would have to do it even in a bungalow, which is arai. I mean, I don't think anyone feels that you could buy a bungalow, a kniyah, unless you say Rav Henkin said even by buying would be that way. You know, if someone buys the old-fashioned—today they have like almost houses, you know, it's like your summer home. I don't know if Rav Henkin would hold by a summer home, an official house that looks like a house, it's not called, you know, yadir; it's only arai. Or else maybe he holds it's only for the summer. You have to know what Rav Henkin's psak is based on, right? Is it the summer or is it the quality? Of the bungalow. It's a good sheilah. It's a nice sheilah. The way it was presented always was, it was the aroyv of the summer. It wasn't the, when he called that, the quality of the thing, that it was like a sukkah that it was able to blow down with a little wind and rain. I don't think that was the issue. The issue was, since it was only a summer thing, it was tzait vaylik. It was just, meila was called what? It was called a roi. Getting back to, again, the sheilah. Here the sheilah, if let's say a person has a shack bungalow that they give him as part of his deal with the camp. He's going to be the head counselor, she'll be the nurse, he'll be the cook, and they give him the shack. So either it's sechirus, maybe it's sechirus, or maybe not even sechirus, and therefore I'm not even mechuyiv. Maybe at all. Maybe I'm just living there, big deal, you know. Or maybe it's even more, it's kinyan. Because I bought it. It's almost like I paid for it. Yeah, but whatever it is, if I pay for it for a month, I could buy a house for a month. If I buy a house for a month— Doesn't buying mean you own it? Yeah, I own it. I own it for a month. What do you mean? A month later, what happens? They take it back from me. I buy it for a month. That's called ownership? Maybe. Why not? You can't— But that's not what's happening. I don't know.

So you're saying either way it's definitely schirus. You say, you know, okay, so even if it's schirus, what happens? So you have the 30 days, right? Okay, so at least that you... Okay, that was the shayla. The shayla always was, how far do I take the chiyuv? Maybe it's not chayiv at all, or maybe this. Okay. What happens if a person, and this happens often, they have a summer bungalow, they come and go. Some people don't stay there constantly. Two days, they'll go travel, they come, they stay, they go. The summer, just Shabbosim, nichnas v'yotze. So I saw b'shem the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Moshe, a psak. Rav Moshe held, af al pi kein yechayev. You still have to put up a mezuzah. Why? People don't care if you come, you're going. It's your bungalow, and you're there. So even if I came just for Shabbosim, I'd be chayiv in a mezuzah. Today, they took bungalows that were rented and they bought them. People started buying the bungalows. Instead of renting every summer from a guy, they would buy their own bungalow. This happened about ten years ago. It started to turn over. So I had a mezuzah, and I put it up, and then I bought it. Do I have to put up another time the mezuzah? Do I make a new bracha? So a person thinks, what do you mean? The mezuzah's up already. Yeah, but it wasn't chayiv in mezuzah. It was only ma'aris ayin, derabbanan. Now I'm chayiv. The Pischei Teshuva in seif katan chaf-ches speaks about it, and he says that you should look at the Nesivos that talks about this shayla if you're mechuyav, which would be an interesting shayla. When you buy the bungalow from... So to speak, yourself, because you were first renting it. So the halacha is maybe you would have to redo the mezuzahs, or al kol panim bemashmeish and make a bracha. Now let me tell you an interesting shaila that came up, very interesting shaila. Am I allowed to live in someone else's house where the person does not have a mezuzah? Okay. Now the truth is, there seems to be no issur to walk into a house that doesn't have a mezuzah. It's chovas hadar. What does that have to do with me? He's doing an aveirah, has nothing to do with me. I saw in the literature of hilchos mezuzah, they bring that gedolim refused to walk into the houses if there was no mezuzah. Just some of you fellows would identify more with that, Ooh, there's no mezuzah. Okay, I hear. But this is only, you know, hilchos chassidus. It's not a halachically you're allowed to walk in. Let's start pushing the envelope a little more. You're not just walking in. You're being a guest by someone that doesn't have a mezuzah. Or let's go one step further. You're borrowing a house from someone that doesn't have a mezuzah. For two weeks you take his house, he goes away in the summer, and there's no mezuzah. Okay, so first of all, let's begin with the Rama. The Rama says clearly on that halacha, chav beis, v'hu hadin l'sho'el bayis dina k'socher, that if you borrow a house, it's like a socher, so I have 30 days. In case I borrow somebody's house for more than 30 days, I would have to put up a mezuzah. If I borrow, if I move into someone's house for more than 30 days and that guy doesn't have a mezuzah, I'd be chayiv to put up a mezuzah. So living in someone's house at some point becomes I borrowed his house, no? But it's only when he's not living there. Meaning when he's living there, I'm a guest, and when he's not living there, I'm a borrower. Even if he's there, I'm a borrower, right? And kol shekein when he's not there, I'm a borrower. So what happens with the following? You ready? Here's the following shaila. Here's the following shaila. It happened, l'maaseh, to me. When I got married, there was an advertisement in a certain bungalow colony, bungalows for two weeks were available, very cheap, and we took it. When we came there, we realized it was a scam. The pool was done. The pool had bugs in it. It was just people ran away from the bungalow colony because it wasn't taken care of. So to try to make up their money, they just—there was no minyanim. It was terrible. My wife was so taken back by it. You know, it was supposed to be a vacation. It was a disaster. So she decided that we're not going to be here. We have to go somewhere else. We went to the nearest bungalow colony, and we walked in and we said, Could you have something available? They said, Not really, because we bought. Everybody bought. We bought our bungalows. But there's one guy who bought who's not coming this year because he has a simcha in Eretz Yisrael.

He's not going to be here this year, but he bought it, so it's available. So we'll call him up and we'll ask him if he could give us this, his bungalow, okay, and lend it to us. Lemaisa, lemaisa, he gave us this bungalow. I walked in, there were no mezuzahs. My vacation pretty much ended right there. I was very, very much perturbed about it. You know, wait a second, mezuzahs, to be two weeks without a mezuzah, this and that. It's like a whole, what do I do? So let's discuss, so to speak, the sugya, which I went through then in the two weeks of my vacation over there. First thing's like this. He bought the mezuzah, wait a second, but mistama the time before, he rented. So was he allowed to take off the mezuzahs when he left before he, right? So if you learn that if someone buys a mezuzah—I'm sorry, buys a house—it turns into a new chiyuv of mezuzah. Maybe he was right for taking off the old mezuzahs, and then he would come back, he would buy it. Nice shaila. You're allowed to take off the mezuzahs because you rented, and now that you're buying, so when you come back, you'll put it in. Or maybe he took off the mezuzahs because Rav Henkin held you're allowed anyway to take off the mezuzahs from a bungalow, because since it's not called a diras—now it wasn't like a house bungalow, it was a bungalow bungalow. I just, he liked the crowd, I guess. You know, certain people want to make sure that they're in the right crowd, they're friends, so they buy bungalows even though it's not a house, but they want to be there. So let's clear like this. Let's say it was a bayis konui, but he never moved in. Yeah, but he really did move in because his furniture was there from the rental time. So he was technically mechuyiv to put up a mezuzah. He was technically mechuyiv to put up a mezuzah, right? Now how about the fact that he let me move in? Is that called he moved in, that he's now mechuyiv mezuzah really, proper, mechuyiv proper mezuzah? Let's forget about the fact that his furniture was there. The mere fact that he bought it, and now he gave me permission to move in, my moving in is not me moving in. It's me moving in in his— I don't know, why not? It was something that I thought about at the time. It's his hishtamshus. If I move in, so he's called the dar, I mean he's the landlord, meaning he's the owner of the house. You're right, he's not sleeping there. I'm sleeping there. He told me to sleep there. I'm his guest, so to speak. Unless maybe the fact that I'm sho'el, so he becomes— I thought it was an interesting shaila. Would he be mechuyiv now mezuzah anyway? What's my next question? At what point do I become ois machnas oreach, hachnasas orchim, and then I become a sho'el? Like if I stay for a day, would I become a sho'el for a day? Unless maybe when he's not there, then I'm a sho'el; when he's there, I'm a machnas oreach. How many days does it take? Maybe if he's בכלל not there and I'm there for two weeks, so that's called sho'el, I'm borrowing. But then I would have a din of what? Of thirty days, right? I would have this din of 30 days, because sho'el has 30 days. If he was mechuyiv to put up a mezuzah, and I stay there, would I have a problem with the fact that I'm in a place where there's no mezuzah? You hear the cheshbon? Let's say he was mechuyiv to put up a mezuzah because he bought it, he bought it, חייב to put up a mezuzah. He bought it, חייב to put up a mezuzah. I stay over there, so maybe I, as a staying, have only a chiyuv in 30, but he might have had... So if I stay there longer than just walking in, is that a problem? To live in a place where there's a chiyuv mezuzah. You're right, I'm not—maybe I'm not mechuyiv in the mezuzah, but he was mechuyiv in the mezuzah. This that we talk about, you don't have to have a problem of being in a place. Maybe that's if I just come into a place, if I come for lunch, for supper. But if I'm staying for three weeks in an apartment that doesn't have a mezuzah, where the chiyuv was anyway to have a mezuzah because the original owner was mechuyiv in mezuzah, maybe that is a problem. So you're going to have to put a mezuzah from now? I don't know, but—

Maybe I can't be there. Maybe it's, maybe there's a maaras ayin a little bit, something, I don't know, because everybody knows that it's his house, maybe, huh? So I know the Rosh Yeshiva held, Rav Moshe held, I'm not mechuyiv to put up a mezuzah. There's a Pischei Teshuva, yeah, that seems to say that where there's a chiyuv mezuzah, and I didn't put up a mezuzah, I'm mechuyiv to leave. The Pischei Teshuva is sif katan aleph, where the Pischei Teshuva says clearly in Reish Pei Vav, sif katan aleph, here, he says like this. Oh, says the Pischei Teshuva, maybe it's Reish Pei Vav. The Pischei Teshuva says clearly that if a person— I'm, oh, I'm sorry, it's Reish Pei Hei, here it is. Oh, it's Reish Pei Hei, sif katan aleph. Says the Pischei Teshuva, So you see that if there is a chiyuv mezuzah, right, and I have a place to go, I have to leave. So first of all, I made the— I don't have a place to leave anyway, so there's really nothing what to talk about. The only thing is, it's not Shabbos, maybe I should run out and get a mezuzah somewhere, huh? But what's the case of the Pischei Teshuva where it's my chiyuv and I was supposed to be there, right, it was my chiyuv and I was supposed to be there, but maybe if it's not my chiyuv mezuzah, it's his chiyuv mezuzah, maybe I don't have a problem, I'm still allowed to be there anyway. You see, for the Pri Megadim, you’re not חייב in a house where there’s no mezuzah. But maybe that’s only because it’s my chiyuv mezuzah, and it’s my house, and I should have put up a mezuzah. And if it’s Shabbos and I can’t do it, so if there’s another house I’m מחויב to go, and if there’s no other house, I’m not מחויב to go. Right? So maybe it has nothing to do with me. Maybe if it’s not my chiyuv, maybe I don’t have to leave, even if I do have another place to go. That was the sevara of the Nidei. Now let me tell you two interesting cases that are nogeia. You know, a lot of times you rent specifically for a certain time, two days every month. Oh, so Rav Moshe, Yeshivas Tzal writes in the teshuva that in a case like that, you don’t have to have a mezuzah. Igros Moshe, chelek aleph, siman kuf ayin ches, you’d be patur. Where was this nogeia? A lot of times they used to, the matzah bakeries, they would rent out the matzah bakery for two, three weeks, whatever, two weeks, three weeks, periodically throughout the year. He said you’re not מחויב. So it’s interesting. On one hand, if you rent for 30 days and you’re only there one day a week, then you are מחויב. But if you rent 30 days, but not consecutively, you would not be מחויב to put up a mezuzah. See the difference? So if a person rents constantly, every time he comes to chaves to town and he sleeps in a certain place, if it’s not consecutive, because that’s not called bayis shelcha, then you’d be patur from mezuzah. But if you rent for an entire month, you can only stay there for one day. You're only there one day. You know how many times people have these bungalows, and they're mamish just for one Shabbos because it didn't work out. They have a chasunah, they have this, they're just there for one Shabbos. It's worth it for them. It's worth it for them for that week to have. Then you'd be mechuyiv to put up a mezuzah. You'd be mechuyiv to go and put up a mezuzah. Okay, so these are the halachos of schirus, schirus and kniyah of a mezuzah. We'll stop. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.