A Short Tribute

When two people are fulfilling a commandment, and one has already fulfilled it while the second is about to do so, it is appropriate to give priority to honoring the one who is about to fulfill the commandment over the one who has already done so. For example, a person who has finished reading the Torah and goes to sit in his place while another congregant is coming up to read, each of the two being as worthy as the other and of equal standing, it is appropriate that the one who has already read and is descending to defer and make way for the passage of the one being called up to the Torah reading, for the one descending from the teiva [synagogue platform] has already performed and fulfilled the reading commandment, while the one being called up to read has yet to read, and so is to be honored and to be given precedence.

This question was posed by one of our revered sages, who are comparable to a town where all the trees and their fruits are beautiful, the faultless sage, our master and teacher Rabbi Yitzhak ben Sahal, may his Rock preserve and vitalize him, concerning a citation from what Maran [Master] Tor Orach Haim [Yaacov ben Asher] said: One does not recite the Blessing on Fragrances at the termination of a Yom Kippur that occurs on Saturday night, the reason being that he has no additional soul [neshama yeterah] because of the fast. This reasoning, however, implies that one who fasts on the Sabbath because of a disturbing dream must refrain from reciting the Blessing on Fragrances at Havdalah, which is peculiar, for this is not common practice.
And I, in all humility, say the custom should be observed, for there is a distinction to be made between an individual's fasting and the public's fasting. When an individual fasts there are no grounds for neshama yeterah - since he is fasting; when everybody has eaten their fill and drunk to their enjoyment, and they have neshama yeterah, it does then behoove one to recite the Blessing on Fragrances, and one must note that his blessing is being recited on the ways and mending of the world.

One who has poor relatives can ostensibly divide the charity he is in the habit of giving: half to those closest to him and half to all the other poor, as indicated in Tractate Pe'ah, Mishna 6, where we learn that "he may retain half and give half". Should one have a minimal amount – one hands it to them and they divide it amongst themselves. See Rabbi David ben Zimra's published Responsa, paragraph 147

Maran [Our Master] wrote in the Shulkhan Aruch, Yoreh De'ah, Section 125, rule 10: "If a non-Jew carries an open vessel containing wine etc., if it is full – it is forbidden to enjoy it, in case he has touched it etc." In my modest opinion, it appears that in our day non-Jews are not proficient in the nature of foreign worship and have no desire to touch the wine; there is no need to suspect that they touch it [with the intention of foreign worship] in those cases where stealing or drinking from it is not suspected. Therefore in all such examples it is permitted, even for drinking.

The custom used to be that one stands on guard with the scroll, for it is not respectful for the Torah to remain on its own, and this would be the cantor; he would be the one who reads to the public. Two others would be positioned next to him, one to his right and one to his left. The one called to read the Torah would stand to his right, and another would stand to his left, symbolizing the Three Fathers. Despite the fact that there is no mention in early writings [Rishonim] that three are required it is, in any case, appropriate to act as it says in the Tractate of Sofrim [scribes], who came later, and were highly proficient in the customs adhered to by the People of Israel after the completion of the Talmud.

The Tosfot, in the Kol Hayad chapter, page 14b, wrote, in these words: One must also be precise about what Rabbi Hiyya said to Rabbi [Yehudah Hanassi], "You too consider it as a spot", and that he did not say, "You too, Master, consider it as a spot". Learn from this that he was in his elder years and was a collegiate student, as we said at the end of [the issue] "one who dies": "Ben Azai was a collegiate student of Rabbi Akiva, for he said to him: You sit, and did not say: Sit, Master". Meaning that had this been said during the years of Rabbi Hiyya's youth he could not have said to Rabbi, 'You too consider' and so on. We learn from this that a student who acquires substantial wisdom with his master, despite the fact that most of the wisdom is from the latter – is considered a collegial student.

In Egypt, may G-d preserve it, when a festival occurs on the Sabbath eve, the custom of the sages in all synagogue communities is to perform eiruv tavshilin for the entire congregation, because there are many congregation members who are not knowledgeable in the performing of the eiruv commandment, and an announcement is made before the congregation to the effect that anyone who did not prepare an eiruv may depend on the sage's having done so.
I was once asked by a certain sage who had forgotten to properly perform the eiruv by including others as it should be done. In my modest opinion, it seems one may be lenient on the issue. I can almost say that since he is accustomed to always perform the eiruv and including the congregation, that there is no need for another to do so… the Halacha tends to leniency in eiruv, and we would say that since he is accustomed in doing his eiruv with the intent to exempt the others, one may consider that his eiruv was fulfilled for him by others, as it were… for by virtue of this fulfillment - that fulfills for others who depend on his eiruv - there is no loss; one profits and the other loses naught, since the eiruv, in any case, benefits the others yet not at the expense of the one performing it. We therefore find it fitting to consider that it is as though he were exempted by others.