Okay, the topic tonight is going to be understanding the isur, the prohibition of שעטנז. We all know what שעטנז is. שעטנז is that we are not allowed to wear a garment that has a mixture of צמר ופשתים, which means wool and flax. There is another name for this prohibition beside שעטנז, it's called כלאים, or כלאי בגדים. This is כלאים means a mixture of different things, and there is the mixture of wearing a garment of a certain mixture, which is the mixture of צמר ופשתים, wool and flax, and we will try to understand what's behind this prohibition. As I always say, we are not This is not a class of halachah, so we're not going to go into the halachot of שעטנז, but we will discuss what is behind this isur, this prohibition of שעטנז, what is the meaning behind it. Try to understand it. Even though at first glance it seems to be a contradiction, the expression to understand שעטנז is a contradiction because we know that שעטנז is always given as one as an example of one of those mitzvot which is a chukah. We know that there are different categories of mitzvot. Certain mitzvot are mishpatim. Mishpatim are those mitzvot that have a reason. We understand why we keep them, and as a matter of fact, the Gemara says, if the Torah chas veshalom would not have been given, we would have kept them anyway. These are mitzvot that make sense, like don't steal and don't kill, and things like that. Then we have mitzvot which are called edot, mitzvot which are testimonial mitzvot, and these mitzvot have an understanding, have an explanation. They have a reason. We understand the reason for the mitzvot. The difference is that if not for the Torah, we would not have done them. But now that the Torah told us to do it, we understand why, like, for instance, Shabbos. If the Torah wouldn't tell us to keep Shabbos, we wouldn't keep Shabbos, but now that the Torah told us, we understand why. Hashem created the world in six days, seventh day He rested, He wants us to rest too, to show that we believe in Hashem's creating the world. Pesach, we wouldn't keep Pesach, but we understand why. But then there is the category of mitzvot that are called chukim, mitzvot that have no reason. And there are not too many. Most of the mitzvot are not chukim, most of them are or mishpatim or עדות. Nevertheless, there are some, few mitzvot which are in the category of חוקים, and one of them is always used as an example, is the example of shatnez, because we don't understand why should we not wear shatnez? Why can we not wear צמר ופשתים? So when I say that the topic tonight is understanding the mitzvah of shatnez or the issur, the prohibition of shatnez, seems to be a contradiction. But nevertheless, we will try to understand the Kabbalistic explanation. The technically there is no reason for it, meaning in the simple sense, in the peshat, there is no reason, but most, all the mitzvot have spiritual, רוחניותדיקע reasons which are explained in Kabbalah, and even those mitzvot that are considered חוקים also have such reasons, and we'll try to understand this mitzvah of shatnez. But just to go through a few details before we get to try to understand the deeper meaning of this issur, this prohibition of shatnez: First, let's just go through what is shatnez. Shatnez is, as I said, we are not allowed to wear a garment which is a made a of a mixture of צמר ופשתים, wool and flax or linen. What does the word shatnez mean? We know that the word shatnez is made up of three words, the Gemara says: שוע, טווי, and נוז. And if you put it together, it's shatnez. שוע, טווי, ונוז. And what it means is, these are three different forms of connection. שוע, I know the English word is hackling, what is that exactly? There's a certain way of of putting things together, and spinning, and weaving. And that's what the word shatnez is. But exactly what it is, there is a machloket, an argument, a three-way machloket, an argument between Rashi, the Rabbeinu Tam, and the Rambam. Rashi says that what it means is that when is there the prohibition of wearing שעטנז מדאורייתא, from the Torah, is only if the wool and the flax are you connected in all three of these forms. In other words, you take raw wool and you take raw פשתים, flax, and you make them into threads together in these three ways, through שוע, טווי, ונוז, which are three ways of connecting, and when you have these threads and you make a garment out of those threads, That's when you really have the real issur prohibition of shatnez. The Rabbeinu Tam says that that's not what it means. The Rabbeinu Tam says what it means is that each one separately, if it's made up of שוע, טווי, or נוז. You have the threads of of wool that were made in a form, you take the raw wool and you make the wool into שוע, טווי, ונוז, and you have the raw pishtan, the raw flax, and you make that into שוע, טווי, ונוז, and then you connect it together, that is what the issur of shatnez is. It doesn't have to be that you wove them or you did these three forms of connection between the two, but each one separately and then you connect with it. Then you have the shita, the opinion of the Rambam. He says that כל חיבור שבעולם, any connection that there is between wool and flax is the prohibition of shatnez from the Torah. Which means that which anyway, whether they're connected through שוע alone or through טווי alone or through נוז alone, and actually these are only examples, any way you connect, just putting a thread through the two together, which is the connection of the wool and the linen, already constitutes the issur of שעטנז מדאורייתא. Now, lahalacha, the מעשה, להלכה בפועל, we can't wear a garment that has any connection of shatnez. Whether it is because we posken like the Rambam or even if we posken like the other opinions, but mid'rabbanan it is forbidden. So whichever way we're going to look at it, it is forbidden to wear them in any form of shape. If you have a garment which has a connection of צמר ופשתים, even if it's connected through just a thread, you have a piece of wool and a piece of pishtan, of linen, and you connect it through a thread. Or even if the thread itself, you have a woolen garment and the thread that you tie, that you sew the buttons on are made of linen or vice versa, that is an issur of shatnez. So this is the general meaning of the issur of shatnez. But what we are going to do is trying to understand what is the meaning behind this prohibition of shatnez. Why did Hashem prohibit Yidden to wear shatnez?

So we have the Rabbeinu Bachya, one of the very early commentaries on Chumash. So he explains על פי קבלה, according to Kabbalah, what is the reason of shatnez. He actually starts off by saying that even though shatnez as I said is a chukah, one of the chukim, which means it has no reason, nevertheless he says, \"I'll try to explain what it is.\" And he goes into certain points. There is one point I will mention just vaguely, and we will not discuss that point. Then I will go to the second point that comes out from the, Rabbeinu Bachya says, he doesn't even make it so clear, but it comes out, and that's what we're going to elaborate on. The first point he makes is, he says that we know that all the way in the beginning of creation, right from the beginning, we had the two people, Kayin and Hevel. And it says that Kayin and Hevel both brought korbanot to Hashem. Hashem accepted the korban of Abel, did not accept the korban of Cain, so Cain killed Abel. What were their korbanot? So it says Cain brought a korban, Rashi says, of פשתן. He brought flax as a korban, as a sacrifice to Hashem. Abel, it says, brought sheep, צאן. Sheep have wool. So he brought פשתן, and Abel brought wool. That is why the combination of the two is forbidden. And this is what he says, because the wool represents, not only down here he says, it represents כוחות עליונים, higher כוחות in the higher worlds of, he says, the רוח הקדושה. Abel brought it and Abel was the good guy, so he brought צמר, wool, that represents the holy spirit. And he says פשתן represents, he says, the רוח הטומאה, the spirit of טומאה. And therefore, he says, just like over there it didn't get together, the two didn't work together, we cannot put the two together. We cannot mix the רוח הקדושה with the רוח הטומאה. We can't mix the two. And therefore, we are not allowed to mix wool and flax together. Now, what he doesn't say is if that if linen represents the רוח הטומאה, then why are we allowed to wear linen? We shouldn't be able to wear linen on our just by itself. So he doesn't explain it, at least not what I saw. Probably what the פשט is that if we wear linen, which represents the רוח הטומאה, it will not have any negative effect on us or a negative effect למעלה. Because it doesn't have a power. רוח הטומאה itself doesn't have power, but if you combine the רוח הטומאה with the רוח הקדושה, with the spirit of קדושה, then the רוח הטומאה gets a יניקה, a nourishment from the רוח הקדושה. And then when the טומאה gets the nourishment from the רוח הקדושה, then the טומאה starts working, has some power because it's given the power, it's given the energy by the רוח הקדושה that you mix together. And again, he doesn't say this, but this is what I understand from what he says. And therefore, we cannot mix צמר ופשתים. That is one point he makes. But as I said, we're not going to elaborate on this point, we're going to go to the other point that comes out from the Rabeinu Bachaye. And that is, that על פי קבלה, according to קבלה, צמר ופשתים, wool and flax, represent חסד and גבורה. And there are proofs for different places why it is so, but צמר ופשתים, the wool is חסד, פשתן is גבורה. One is kindness, one is strictness, or when we apply that to the concept of emotions, it is אהבה and יראה, it is love and fear. אהבה comes from חסד, יראה, fear, comes from גבורה, and you cannot mix חסד and גבורה together. And that's what it is. That's why he says we are not allowed to wear צמר ופשתים together, because we are not allowed to mix the two opposites, the חסד and גבורה. Now we have to explain this, because this seems very strange, because we learn constantly that it is very important to mix חסד and גבורה. On the contrary, it's always, we always learn that the whole idea is there should be התכללות המדות, there should be the combination of the מדות. A person shouldn't have חסד completely, just חסד, or גבורה completely, just to be kind to the extreme without a little bit of strictness, you shouldn't be strict to the extreme without a little bit of kindness, and it says you should always have the mixture of the מדות, which is the pshat in what the Rambam says, that a person should never go to the extreme, you should always go in the מדה בינונית. So you should have you have the middle road, which means the middle road is a combination of both sides, so you have to have חסד and you have to have גבורה. And that's the only way a person could behave. So we know that you should. We know this is the idea of making shalom. Peace is when you take two sides and you put them together, you have peace. That's the best. כל התורה כולה לא ניתנה אלא לעשות שלום בעולם. The whole Torah was given to make peace in the world, to bring it together. We know this is an avodah that's expected of every Yid, that you should have both. You shouldn't just have an extreme of one, of חסד, or an extreme of גבורה, you have to have together. As the Gemara actually says, the Gemara says לעולם יהא אדם רך כקנה ואל יהא קשה כארז, which means a person should be soft like a reed, and not be hard like a cedar tree. Which means, very simply, that a person's מדות should be soft מדות. Soft מדות means it shouldn't be hard to one extreme. Soft means that you're able to turn. When something is soft, you can turn to this side, you can turn to that side, while if something is hard, that means you're sticking to one thing and that's it and you're not giving in. A Yid is supposed to know that you have to have soft מדות, the Gemara says, רך כקנה. So, normally, we as we know that you have to have the combination of חסד and גבורה. And here the Rabbeinu Bachya says that the reason for the issur of shatnez is because it represent צמר ופשתים, wool and flax represent chesed and gevurah, and we are not allowed to mix the two opposites together. So the pshat is like this. When we talk about mixture, we find in halachah that there are two types of mixtures: There is a mixture which we call מין במינו, and a mixture called מין בשאינו מינו. There is a mixture of two things which are the same מין, the same kind, so you're mixing two things, but it's מין במינו. It's basically both are the same מין, the same kind, and you're mixing them together. And then you have a concept of a mixture מין בשאינו מינו, when things which are two different kinds and you mix them together. Now when you mix two things which are the same מין, the same kind, it's not really a mixture, because it's really the same thing. When is it considered a real תערובת, a real mixture? If it's מין בשאינו מינו, if it's not the same kind. When it comes to kedushah, to holy matters, chesed and gevurah are not two separate מינים to be considered a mixture which is wrong. They are called מין במינו, even though this is chesed and this is gevurah, this is kind and this is strictness, but really it's the same מין. Why? Because if you're using it to serve Hashem, whichever way you, whatever thing, anything that you do, it's all for one goal. So there is one thing in mind, there is something that is beyond both, which is The reason why you have it. And therefore, whether it is the detail of chesed or the concept of gevurah, but basically, it's the same thing. What is the same thing? It's serving Hashem, that's all it is. And whichever way you have to serve Hashem, you do it. So, it's only a ציור, a צורה, a shape of chesed or gevurah, but in essence, the chesed and gevurah are really the same thing and they are not really a contradiction, they're not two opposites. As the Sifri says an interesting thing: We know that we are obligated to love Hashem. We are obligated to have fear from Hashem. The pasuk says ואהבת את ה׳ אלקיך, you have to love Hashem. Then the pasuk says ה׳ אלקיך תירא, which means have fear. So the Sifri says an interesting expression: There is no such thing as ahavah and yirah together, love and fear together, ela b'middat Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Only when it comes to Hashem and serving Hashem, you are able to have two opposites at the same time. Because the mitzvah of love, loving Hashem, and the mitzvah of fear, are not in separate times, that in the morning you have to have Ahavat Hashem, and in the afternoon you have Yirat Hashem. You have to have it at the same moment. Actually, the Chinuch, in the Sefer Hachinuch, the famous Sefer Hachinuch, has an introduction. In the introduction, he says, different mitzvot take place at different times. There are six mitzvot, he says, that every moment of one's life you have to do those six mitzvot. He even gives a remez. It says שש ערי מקלט תהיינה לכם, there are six cities of refuge, the six mitzvot that we always have to have. And those six, two of those six mitzvot is ahavah and yirah, and you have to have it every second. So how can you have love and fear, which are two opposite feelings at the same time? So the Sifrei says, true, it's impossible. Only במדת הקדוש ברוך הוא, when it comes to serving Hashem, that's when you can have the two opposites together. Why can you have the two opposites together? Because they're not really opposites. It's מין במינו, it's one מין. Because both, there is one goal, and there is one nekudah, one point in both of them, and that is serving Hashem, getting close to Hashem. If you want ahavah, it's ahavah, yirah, yirah, but it's not a contradiction. And it's similar to what it says in the Midrash on the פסוק עושה שלום במרומיו. It's a famous pasuk, everyone knows that. What is the meaning of the pasuk? עושה שלום במרומיו means Hashem makes peace in his heavens. Makes peace. Who's fighting there that he has to make peace? Peace between who? So it says, yeah, between Malach Michael and Malach Gavriel. Malach Michael, it says, is the שר של מים, he is the שר, the officer of water, spiritual water, and Gavriel, Malach Gavriel, is from the word gevurah, שר של אש, of fire. But some places it says Michael is the שר of snow, and this is the שר of fire. Now normally if you put water and fire together, one is going to overcome the other: or the water will extinguish the fire, or the fire will dry up the water. But here, עושה שלום במרומיו, השם makes peace in heaven between them, that מיכאל שר של מים and גבריאל שר של אש, ואינם מכבים זה את זה, and they don't extinguish each other. They live together. Why? Because since they're there, and they know that they have one mission, and that is to serve Hashem and to do Hashem's mission, so basically what they feel is Hashem. Now the fact that it comes out in a form of gevurah here, in a form of chesed here, which is water and fire, chesed and gevurah, that that's just a detail, but that's not the essence. The mashal given to this is, you could have sometimes two שרים, two officers in the cabinet of the king, and not always are they friendly, sometimes they hate each other, and they do things against each other, and they're nasty to each other. But when they're standing in front of the king, all that is forgotten. Why? Because there's one thing that's there, and that is the king. And when the king is there, they lose their metziut. Now it doesn't mean that they lose completely, this is not anymore the officer of this department, this one is the officer—they're still the officers of their departments, which may conflict. But when you stand in front of the king and you feel the king, the presence of the king, you lose the differences. And really they are both one, even though they have opposite jobs to do. And the same thing here: when we serve Hashem, it says in the Sifrei, there's ahavah and yirah together. And therefore, when I asked, how could Rabbeinu Bachaye say that the concept of shatnez, the issur of shatnez is because you have chesed and gevurah, צמר represents chesed, פשתים represents gevurah, and together you can't mix the two. So the question was asked, what do you mean you can't mix? The whole kavanah, we should mix the middot. Well, it depends when. When it comes to ענינים of kedushah, serving Hashem, then we have to mix chesed and gevurah, but that's not not a real mixture. But when it comes to עניני העולם, worldly matters where it's not kedushah, the nature of worldly matters is that each one feels its own metziut, its own being. And its own being is felt as what it is, and therefore chesed is chesed, gevurah is gevurah. And it feels the chesed as chesed, the gevurah as gevurah, so then if each one is a metziut in itself and they are opposites, if they will come together, it'll be a conflict. As the Sifrei says that we cannot have ahavah and yirah together. He says only by מדות הקדוש ברוך הוא, only concerning Hashem, but otherwise you can't have it. And therefore, when we talk about putting on a garment which has צמר ופשתים, which is not something that has to do with kedushah, it's just wearing a garment, not kedushah, so in that case the two opposites are opposites and it's no good to have the two opposites. Why is it no good? Because when you have two opposites come together, what it turns out to be is a war and you have a conflict and you have פירוד, you have separation. They don't fit together and that's something that's against the will of Hashem. So Hashem does not want you to wear צמר ופשתים together, because this is a conflict, because in this case it's called a תערובת, מין באינו מינו. It's a mixture of two different kinds and if each one is a separate kind, then that mixture is no good.

Therefore, we do find cases when shatnez is allowed. One of them is in the בגדי כהונה, in the garments of the kohanim. The אבנט, the gartel, had shatnez, and according to many the other garments also had shatnez, and they were allowed. Why? Because the problem of shatnez is only if it's not inyanim of kedushah, then we have a problem of having the two opposites of chesed and gevurah. But when we deal with kedushah, then chesed and gevurah together is not a problem. To the contrary, we want them to come together, because kedushah means that they both feel their mission, so they only feel, one, both feel the same thing, which is Hashem. So therefore, when it comes to the garments of the בגדי כהונה, shatnez was allowed. כלאים בציצית. When you wear tzitzit, you're allowed to wear shatnez. Okay, nowadays we don't for different reasons, the chachamim made a gezeirah, but originally the din is that if you have a garment of linen, you're allowed to put in tzitzit of wool, even though it is shatnez. Why? Because this is a mitzvah and a mitzvah is serving Hashem. When it comes to serve Hashem, then there is no problem of having chesed and gevurah together. The contrary, it's exactly what we want. We want chesed and gevurah together. So this is the idea of shatnez and when shatnez is allowed. Shatnez is different than another type of כלאים. We said shatnez has another name, כלאי בגדים, כלאים of בגדים. There are two more types of of כלאים which are not called shatnez, but they're all the same category, and that is, as the Rabbeinu Bachaye also referred to them, כלאי קרקע and כלאי בהמה. You're not allowed to mix seeds of different fruits which are two different kinds, you're not allowed to mix them and plant them to have a different kind of fruit come out. You're also not allowed to mix animals. You can't breed two different species of animals and come out with a third type. You're not allowed to do that. Now here, by these sha'atnez, it's not called sha'atnez, by these kilayim, we do not find that it should be allowed in any case. See, by sha'atnez we said you're allowed to have it by the בגדי כהונה, you're allowed to have it by tzitzit, but here this is not allowed anywhere. The animal is not treif. I mean the animal is not treif, the animal is not forbidden, but the making of the mixture is forbidden. And here we don't find anywhere that it's allowed. Why? So let me explain the difference between sha'atnez and this type of kilayim and then we'll understand why here we don't find that it's allowed and there we do find it's allowed. What is the reason why we're not allowed to mix the seeds or mix the animals? So the Rabbeinu Bachayei says, and the Ramban also says that the reason is because Hashem created the world with things, everything in its according to its מין, to its kind, and we're not allowed to interfere to mix מינים together. And this is a different problem than the case of sha'atnez. The problem here is that we will mix them together and a third מין will come out, one child will come out, one thing will be What we're doing is, we're getting involved in the essence of the seed, of the fruit. The fruit has a כח היולדה, has a כח of giving birth to fruit, which is the essence of the fruit. Certainly by animals, just like by human beings, the כח היולדה, the fact that a person has this power of giving birth to another human being, that power is very, very deep. That's the essence of the person, that he is able to give over from his essence of life to give over to make a new human being. And that's something that's very essential. That's not a superficial power of the person, or in this case, of the animal. It's not like the power of sight, the ability of seeing, the sense of seeing, or even the idea of the ability of understanding. Those are all individual things of the human being. The כח היולדה, the fact that you're able to give birth, means that you're able to create another human being like you are, that's taken from your essence. And that's why we find an interesting thing, that יפה כח הבן מכח האב. It's possible that the father should be sick, the father should God forbid be blind, the father should God forbid not be able to walk, and the child that's born could see. And the question is, how's that possible? If the child comes from the father, how could he have more than the one he comes from? If in the סיבה, in the cause, it's not there, how can the result, the effect have it? If all it takes is from its source, if the source doesn't have it, if the father can't see, so he obviously doesn't have the ability of sight, how does the child have that ability? The answer is, every person essentially in his נפש, in the truth, in the essence of his נפש, has all כחות, has everything. If a person can't see, it's not because he doesn't have essentially the ability of sight, it's because there is something wrong in the eye that cannot take that כח out of the נפש and bring it into actual seeing. But in the נפש, it's there. Now, when a person is born, father gives birth or creates a child, so obviously, the child doesn't take from the superficial part of the person, because superficially, the father can't see. The fact that the child could see is because the child takes from the essence of the father, where there is the ability to see, just the father's eyes can't take it, the child's eyes could. And the same with every other power. So the ability of creating, of giving birth is the essence. The same thing when it comes to fruit: the fact that it could recreate is the essence of the fruit. And when we mix the two, what we do is, we're getting involved in the essence of what the fruit is, the different מינים, and we make that there should be a third מין we're combining. Different, and the same thing with the animals, that a new type of animal will come out, be one animal that will be a mixture of both. So we're getting involved in the fact that Hashem divided and made different kinds. Which is not like by sha'atnez. By sha'atnez, when we connect the צמר and the פשתים, the wool and the flax, we're not creating a new object which is a new unit of a mixture. They still remain separate. You could even separate them if you want. If you work hard, you could take out the thread, you could separate them. It didn't become like one new unit. It's only what we call a חיצוניותדיקע, a superficial connection. But by the case of the kilayim of the fruit and the kilayim of the animals, that is a real, real real mixture that we're getting involved in the essence of it and making it into a new thing. It's a פנימיותדיקע mixture that we're doing here. And even though there is a prohibition, not only of mating them together, but there is a prohibition of having a שור וחמור, an ox and a donkey, plow together. And there we're not really making a mixture. But that's a different thing. The Rambam says that's only as a גזירה, the Torah made it in order we shouldn't come to breed them together. Really, this is not the איסור. We're not allowed to do it, but it's all because of that. So the main thing of those kilayim is because we don't want the mixture and turn into one unit, which is, if we think about it, the opposite problem than the case of sha'atnez. The case of sha'atnez, what we don't want is, we don't want that we should have the two opposites come together. And what's the problem? When you put the two opposites together, you're going to have a fight. You're going to have a conflict, because each one is the opposite, and they're extreme, it won't work, you'll have a conflict. What's the problem in the case of כלאים of בהמות or כלאים of קרקע, of the land? We don't want the אחדות! We don't want the unity! We don't want that they מין, because Hashem wants different מינים, and what we're doing is we're combining and making an אחדות. By the case of שעטנז, the problem is the fact that we're going to cause פירוד, we're going to cause a conflict, a separation, we're going to cause a fight. And here the problem is that we're going to cause an אחדות which Hashem doesn't want. Because the truth is they're both right. In other words, we can't cause, we're not allowed to cause there should be a conflict, but not always is אחדות good either. Not always is unity good. There are some times that you shouldn't have unity. You should separate from somebody. Certain times, let's say, you have a person that will have a bad influence, I'm just giving an example, so you say, \"Well, let me talk to him, let me be his friend, because unity.\" In a case like that, you shouldn't have unity. We have to have a combination of both. We have to have unity and not conflict, and at the same time we also not always is unity good. Using back the same mashal we said before, when you have two officers in front of the king, and because they're standing in front of the king, so as much as they're enemies, when they're there they have the אחדות, they don't fight. So we don't want that let's say you have two, each one is working on a is a is a different department, and you'll say they'll have אחדות, so now they're each one will give up a department and they'll start working together on one project as one. That's not going to work. You have to have אחדות meaning that they should work together, but each one has to stick to what he's supposed to do. The mashal is that you have to have אחדות between the heart and the and the mind, the brain. It has to be that way, they have to work together and they have to each one has to do, but each one has to do his job. If you're going to say, \"Okay, since they're going to have אחדות, let the heart and the brain do the same function,\" a person can't live that way. You have to have separate functions. You can't have real אחדות. The אחדות has to be that the two functions that each one does should work together for one purpose, one goal, working together. And this is the difference between the שעטנז, the mixture of the צמר and the פשתים versus the mixture of the בגדים, of the of the I mean of the animals or of the קרקע. By the animals and the קרקע, the problem is we're going to have אחדות when it's not right. It's going to come together, Hashem wants separate kinds, and we're going to make it together, make one kind as a mixture of both. That's not what Hashem wants. By שעטנז, the problem is that we're going to take two things and they're going to be a conflict. There won't be an אחדות because they're two opposites. So by שעטנז, being that the problem is that you'll have a conflict, so when it comes to קדושה, by קדושה there won't be a conflict. Why? Because קדושה you have a common goal and you don't feel your own מציאות, you feel whichever it is, חסד or גבורה, it's all to serve Hashem, so there won't be a conflict. And therefore, when it comes to שעטנז, when it's a mitzvah of tzitzit or the mitzvah of בגדי כהונה, the din is you're allowed. But when it comes to the issur of the other type of כלאים, where the problem is that you're going to have achdut where it's wrong, then even in kedushah it won't work. Even in kedushah we have to have separations of different מינים that Hashem wants. And therefore, there there is no din that in the בית המקדש or by a mitzvah you're allowed to mix the animals together, you're allowed to mix the fruit together.

Then there is another kind which is also similar to shaatnez and similar to the כלאים of the mixture of the animals and the mixture of the seeds, and that is בשר בחלב, meat and milk, which is similar to shaatnez. Actually, the Shelah writes, quotes the Rikanati, who says that סוד בשר בחלב, the secret of בשר בחלב, is כסוד כלאי בגדים, is similar to the secret of shaatnez. The same idea: meat and milk represent two different concepts and when you're going to mix them together, what's going to happen is you're mixing two opposites together. But interesting enough, when it comes to בשר בחלב, the milk and meat, in the Mekhilta, this is a type of midrash, in the Mekhilta it says that there was an idea, a havah amina, a possibility of saying that in the בית המקדש you're allowed to mix milk meat and milk. And the halachah is not like that. We learn out from a pasuk that you cannot. But here we see that this would be, see, by the other type of the כלאים of mixing the seeds or the animals, there is not even a question, no even thought that it could be in kedushah. But by בשר בחלב, we do find that. And I'll explain why: because בשר בחלב is a mixture which is forbidden, but it's like a ממוצע, it's in between these two kinds. We explained that there is the kind of mixture which is shaatnez, which is a mixture which is a conflict, if you mix two opposites it'll be a conflict. Then we said there's the other kind of mixture by the animals and the seeds, which is just the opposite problem, it won't be a conflict. You put them together, you'll have one unit which will go over the borders of the מינים. בשר בחלב is in between, and I'll explain how. בשר בחלב has both. On one hand, בשר בחלב is not like shaatnez. In shaatnez, as I said before, the mixture is not a real mixture. It doesn't become one, you just have two parts to it and you mix them together, but you don't have one new unit like in the animals, case of the animal that you come out with a third a breed of an animal which is a mixture of both. So בשר בחלב is not like not like shaatnez, because when is the real real issur of the Torah for בשר בחלב? If you cook them together. And what happens if you cook them together? It becomes one. So it is similar to the animal, not like the concept of the בגדים. And that's why we find, if you will soak, even if you will soak meat in milk it says for 24 hours, and there is a halachah called כבוש כמבושל, that when you soak something for 24 hours in liquid, it's the same as if you cooked it. It absorbs as if you cooked it. And nevertheless, mid'oraita, this would not be the issur of בשר בחלב, because only when it gets cooked together that's when it really becomes one. We know in Yoreh De'ah, when you learn for semicha you learn your בשר בחלב and ta'arovot, there we have a concept that בשר בחלב is called an איסור מחמת עצמו. It's not called an איסור בלוע, I don't want to get into the details, just say it in two words. You have sometimes an issur which is absorbed, like if you have a piece of bread and it absorbs blood, so the whole piece of bread is forbidden because there is an issur, forbidden food, absorbed in kosher food. But when milk meat, let's say, absorbs milk, we don't consider it an איסור בלוע that you have a piece of meat which absorbed milk. Together they make up one unit. That's why the halacha is that according to all opinions, by בשר בחלב is חתיכה נעשית נבלה. Again in short, just to explain it, when we know that something treifa falls into kosher and there's 60 times as much, it becomes batel. If it's less than 60, then it doesn't become batel. Let's say, give an example, that treifa oil, chazir fat, a gallon fell into 50 gallons of kosher oil. So, less than 60, you can't eat the whole thing. 10 more gallons of kosher oil fell in now. Can you eat it all now? So there's an argument. One opinion says, \"Yes, so now you have 60 kosher versus one gallon of treifa.\" Another opinion says, \"No, חתיכה נעשית נבלה. Since it fell in and it wasn't batel, so now the whole thing became treifa, so now in order to make it kosher you have to have 60 times the 51.\" But not everyone agrees to that. By בשר בחלב, everyone agrees that if you have, let's say, a piece of meat and it fell into 50 times as much milk, let's say a piece of meat of a pound fell into 50 pounds, whichever way, everyone agrees that now if 10 more pounds of milk will fall in, it won't make it kosher. You have to have 60 times the 51 because when the meat and the milk got together, it became one unit of issur. It's not it absorbed something treifa, it's not that the meat is forbidden because it has milk in it, meat and milk become one. So according to this, the combination, the mixture, the ta'arovot of meat and milk is similar to the mixture of the animals. But on the other hand, it's not exactly the same. It's more like shatnez. Why? Because there was no birth that came out. By the animals, when you mix them together, they give birth to a third animal which is a mixture of both. Or the seeds, you take two seeds, you mix them together, a new fruit comes out. So you have affected the essence of the fruit, you have affected you mix the כח היולדה, the כח of giving birth of the fruit or the כח of giving birth of the animals. But in the case of בשר בחלב, you didn't create that this gave birth to a new kind. It is that they themselves got mixed, but not a new kind. So in this way, it is similar to shatnez, where you mixed two things together. Because it's similar to shatnez, there is a sevara, there is a at least a thought that maybe just like shatnez, what is the problem of shatnez? The problem is that we have two opposites and we don't want them to mix together because they'll conflict. But because of that, if it's in kedusha, it's okay. So we would think that by בשר בחלב, since the problem really is that we have two things that you can't mix them together because we don't want the mixture of two opposites, because they'll Conflict, so then in kedusha, in the בית המקדש it should be okay. The halacha is not like that, because after all, בשר בחלב is like the other type of kilayim, because it does become one unit. It doesn't give birth to a unit, but it does become one unit, and a unit which mixes the two מינים. So in truth, בשר בחלב is similar to the other kinds, not like the kinds like that shatnez. And therefore there it's not mutar by a mitzvah. So really we have here three kinds: we have shatnez of בגדים, of garments, we have the mixture of animals or seeds, fruit, which is the second kind, then we have the בשר בחלב. By the בשר בחלב, there's a thought maybe it should be mutar by kedusha, but it's not. By the animals, it's for sure not even a question. And by shatnez, when it comes to kedusha, it is mutar. Only question is, why is it that shatnez is only forbidden to wear, while the other type of כלאים it's forbidden to make? You can't mix the fruit, just plant them together, you can't breed the two animals together. Here it doesn't say anywhere you can't mix צמר ופשתים. You can weave the two together, you're allowed to. You just can't wear it. Why is it? And the answer is, because as we said, the problem of shatnez is that you're going to take two opposite kinds, chesed and gevurah, and then you're going to mix it, not in kedusha obviously, they will conflict, because you're not allowed to, when you mix them together, it won't work, because each one is to its own extreme, and it won't work together, and that's why you're not allowed to mix it. Now in truth, when you put them together, it's not a real mixture. It's not going to really conflict, because not a real mixture. As we said before, is it a real mixture? Especially that צמר ופשתים, one is חי and one is צומח. Wool is taken from a animal, פשתן grows, and we know that we have the world is divided into four categories: דומם, צומח, חי, מדבר. You have the דומם, the unmovable object, you have the plant life, you have the living animals, and then you have the human being. So you have four categories. פשתן is from the category of צומח, it grows. Wool is from the category of חי, it comes off from the sheep. So these two kinds are two different kinds that actually cannot mix. Because as much as you put them together, it's still two separate things, and you really can't mix. It's not like the case of the animals where both are animals, and you could actually mix them together and make it into one. The case of the seeds, they're both צומח, so you could mix two מינים of צומח. But to mix צמר ופשתים to really, really be considered a mix, that you can't. And therefore, to make it is not really the problem. The problem, we said, is if you mix them together and you get too close, there'll be a פירוד, they'll fight, so to speak. And as the Rabbeinu Bachya says, it doesn't mean only down here. Down here we don't see a fight between the wool and the and the flax, but if you do that down here, it's going to affect the כוחות עליונים, to the higher כוחות, and there'll be fights and פירוד between כח חסד and gevurah above in the higher worlds. But the truth is it won't, because in which way are they mixed? They're not really, really mixed. If you wear it, the fact that you're putting them both on together as one garment, that's when the mixture happens. And therefore, the real, real איסור שעטנז is to wear the צמר ופשתים, because that's when there is one unit, there is one person who uses one garment, and as far as his usage is concerned, it's one. In themselves, they're two just put together, but they're not really mixed. But when he wears it, it's one wearing, which makes it into one unit, which is the problem when you're going to try to make one unit of two opposites, it's not going to work, and it'll have an effect in the higher worlds, and it's going to be a conflict, conflict between chesed and gevurah, and that's why it's only by wearing. But by the others, it's just putting it together in itself is a mixture, and it's a mixture that will turn into אחדות, into a unity of two kinds which Hashem doesn't want, and that's why there, just to make it is forbidden. Then there's another point, give me a few more minutes, another point when it comes to shatnez, a different approach to the problem of shatnez, which will also explain why only wearing shatnez is forbidden. We know that just like in the world as I said we have the four categories of דומם, צומח, חי, ומדבר, you have in every human being you also have these four kinds. Different parts of the person are considered the דומם, different parts צומח, חי, ומדבר, and just to explain the חי ומדבר, the צומח וחי, מידות of the person, the מי- The emotions of the person are called צומח. צומח means it grows. That's what it is, the middos of a person grows, that's how it is. Grows from small to big, when you're a small child and you grow, and even in every person. You develop your middos. You develop a love to somebody, you develop, God forbid, a hate to somebody, you develop a fear. It develops, it grows. So the middos of a person are called צומח. The brain, the intellect is called the חי. That is the life. And in קבלה, חסידות it discusses these two. Now normally, it is very good to have a combination of the seichel and the middos. On the contrary, that's what we want. We want our seichel to control our middos. To have a hashpaah, to have an influence on our middos. Our middos shouldn't do what they want. מוח שליט על הלב. We want our moach to control over the middos. And the middos have to work together in harmony with the moach. So really we want the two together. The only problem, when is it not good? If each one gives up its function. You have to have the brain has to work with the moach, the middos have to work as middos. If they become one, and each one loses, the moach loses its characteristic of moach, and the middos lose their characteristic of middos, that's no good. That's the כלאים of the animals, that they lose their own individuality and they become a new kind. But otherwise, it's good. So therefore, just to mix צמר ופשתים, there's no problem to mix צמר, wool, which is the חי, which represents the brain, the intellect, and the פשתים, which is the צומח, represents the middos, is no problem. It's good to mix together, because you want them to be together, you want them to work in harmony together. The problem is when you wear it. Wearing is very, when you put on a garment, it's מקיף, it's around you, it's very general. Generally speaking, each one has to keep its own individuality. When it's a time to work with the seichel, it has to have an effect on your middos, but you can't lose the fact that you are working with seichel. For instance, just be practical. When you sit down to learn, you have to use your brain. And your brain has to affect your middos obviously, but you can't lose focus that you're using your brain. You can't while you're learning decide with middos, you have a feeling and then you have a kashya, well, I have a feeling and that's the teirutz. You have to you have to use your brain. The same thing when it's a time of middot, when you daven and you have to have a feeling to Hashem, you can't get involved, well, I understand and the seichel, you have to have the middot. So generally speaking, seichel has to be seichel, middot have to be middot, you can't mix the two. Then they have to have a hashpa'ah one on another. And therefore, wearing a garment which surrounds the whole person, that represents the generality of it. So the generality of it, we don't want to mix צמר ופשתים. We don't want to mix צומח וחי. We don't want to mix the mochin and the middot. Because each avodah, when it comes to the time of mochin, it has to stay mochin, and when the middot, with middot. But when you're not wearing it, which means not the general makif, but when it comes to putting them together, it's very good. We should have the seichel affect the middot, the middot should have a connection to the seichel, we should work together. And that's what shatnez is, that making shatnez is no problem. Wearing shatnez is a problem, because then we lose focus of what our avodah is supposed to supposed to be, and we're supposed to do it according to what each individual thing is. This is when the, but the other type of shatnez or כלאים, there where actually it becomes one which loses the individuality, that's no good, and that's why that's forbidden even to make. But shatnez like this is only with not wearing it. When it comes to the Beit Hamikdash, when it comes to kedushah, or to כלאים with tzitzit, where there is kedushah, there we're not afraid that it's going to lose its individuality because if you're serving Hashem, whatever Hashem wants, if you're giving yourself over to Hashem, you're going to do it, so then you could even have shatnez. The reason I chose this subject is because we're talking this week's parshah Pekudei, which is the end of the series concerning the Beit Hamikdash and the בגדי כהונה, especially in Pekudei, and here we learn about the shatnez in the בגדי כהונה, so I thought this was a good time to talk about shatnez. But to end off, it happens to be that the איסור of shatnez is a very important issur. The fact that it's one of the chukim shows certainly how great, how deep it is, because the chukim are deeper than the other mitzvot. But on the other hand, for some reason, it's one of those מצוות שאדם דש בעקביו. It's a mitzvah that people are not really so careful with. People are, I remember when the shaatnez laboratory just started in New York, they came out with a slogan, and they used to have a like a, and they used to show a picture, would you like to eat pork? Or something like that. If you wear shaatnez, it's exactly like eating pork. Now everyone, \"Ooh, pork, chas veshalom!\" Now, wearing shaatnez is the same thing, it's the same lav in the Torah, but for some reason people are not so careful. But we have to Remember that this is something very important, and especially it says a person learns and davening, and you're wearing shaatnez, it says it affects your tefillot. How could the tefillot go up to Hashem, tefillot that you're davening while you are wearing something that is forbidden, that Hashem doesn't want you to? So, these are the garments, and garments represent the spiritual garments, etc., etc., so it has an effect on the person. So we have to be careful with this, together with all the other mitzvot. And when we are careful with the mitzvot, Hashem will be careful with us and give us everything that we need.

Yes. Well, there's a big argument in the poskim which animals you could, which you can't. Whether it has to be only kasher with not kasher, or within kasher itself. There are different halachot. Oh, that's all because it's all one, right, it's all dogs. Let's say a dog with a wolf. That's a she'eilah, that's a big those are questions in halachah, which ones you're allowed, which ones you're not. Yes. You're all in one, right. Yeah, but it's not the same. It's a wheat plant a wheat that has in it juices of so it's a new thing. It has a certain part of the of the other kind. Maybe. But this one is a new kind. Whichever way, it'll be the grapes, and the grapes will have some of יניקה, the halachah it's called a יניקה, some not. Huh? Take for instance an etrog. What is the problem by an etrog an אתרוג מורכב that you have to check? An etrog that's מורכב. מורכב means when they they graft the trees of the etrogim. It's pasul. Why is it pasul? So there are different opinions, but one opinion is because it's a different kind, it's not an etrog anymore. If you take an orange with an etrog and graft them together, the fruit that comes out in halachah is a different fruit. It's not an etrog. It's a new thing, it's an etrog-orange together, even though it looks like an etrog, maybe tastes like an etrog, but there is a concept of orange in it. You'll grow an etrog, and that'll still be that that one will still be will still be pasul for for the use. See, that the branches that you graft in the tree, those branches are still etrog. They just give out a fruit that is a mixture. But if you take the seed from the fruit, there'll be a problem. There's another opinion that the reason is because part of it is etrog, part of it is orange, so the etrog is chaser. It's missing part of the etrog. That's something else, but another thing is that it's a different kind. One second, you're first, second. Well, it's a מצוות לא תעשה, so it's called a mitzvah. It's a negative mitzvah. That's called a mitzvah. It's a מצוות לא תעשה, a mitzvah that you shouldn't do. One of the שס״ה, 365. Sure women are obligated. What do you mean women not obligated? Sure, women are obligated! The issur of shatnez is for men and women equally! There's no such thing as women exempt from shatnez. Women have the same obligation. It's just that it's more common to find shatnez in a man's suit, and that's why it's more, but women's garments, sure they can be shatnez. That's one of the ma'alot if you always wear a kapota, because it's made by frume yidn and it's not shatnez, it has all the ma'alot. You're never afraid of of having an issur in all ways. There's no she'elah of having to put tzitzit on it, you see, that's why when they make it, they make one corner round because it shouldn't have four corners, so that you're it's a kasher garment! But if you buy a suit in the store, you never know. But for women it's the same. Yes. Now, the truth is the truth is it's what is accomplished there could be is the same, but we cannot make up our own issurim. Now, some of the cases that they do actually falls under the category of the prohibition. Some doesn't, and if it doesn't, we can't make up, aye, it seems to have the same problem, but we can't, you know, make it our own. Besides, it's the making of it that's the problem, not the food, fruit. Therefore, if a goy plants kilayim, you're allowed to eat the fruit. Plants the mixture of the two kinds, you're allowed to eat the fruit. Just is not allowed to make that mixture. The same thing here, maybe they're not allowed, certain cases they're not allowed, but if they make it and the fruit comes out, it's not treif. So על פי דין we So most people are goyim, so we don't suspect. If a Jew made it b'mezid, for him it would be asur, but for other people, not. One second, yeah? I don't know if anybody else noticed wool and linen in space, that that that heat, the material will disintegrate. Never heard it. Interesting. If it's it's true, it's interesting, yeah. Domem it says is for dibbur, speech. Why? Because the words are like it says in Sefer Yetzirah it says every word is like a brick. Just like a brick builds a lot of buildings, every word builds up a lot, so that's called a tzomeach. That's the domem. So the domem are words, the tzomeach are the midot, the chai is is the mochin, and the medaber, so different different places, some places it says תענוג ורצון, the person's pleasure, ability of having pleasure, and some places it says the כח הדיבור. The other one is speech, the actual speaking of the words, and the koach, the ability of speaking which is an ability of a person expressing himself out of himself, that's the מדבר. מדבר actually means speak, speech. Yes. Can make it, yes. It's a very interesting thing that the word shatnez itself, there are five letters in shatnez. There are seven תגין above the various letters, which Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to know about. The fact of the matter, all five have תגין above them, which is very interesting. But if you look at the letters of shatnez, you come up with different things. All are odd. Each letter is odd. All seven are odd by the way. And that has to do with individuality as opposed to pair. Right, so that's the the conflict. Yeah, very good, yes. Only for shirts. Yeah, it has to be one, but we have to be very careful if you wear two because if one bends over the other, or you can't take off one without the other, you can't wear. Let's say you can wear a linen shirt with a wool sweater. Depends how it is. We have to be careful, because if one will bend over the other and it'll become like one, it's no good. Or if you'll take them off together, it's no good, so we have to be careful we shouldn't. I just I just said that since that we have four corners here, it should be חייב בציצית. But one corner is round. I just mentioned that when they make it by Jews, it's made kasher, so it has all the kashrut in it. If one comes over the other, so it flaps over, so that makes it, right, and that and that will make it a problem, yeah. What else do you want to ask? Is there a parallel problem, and I assume there isn't, but I'm wondering why there isn't cooking meat from lamb, sheep, together with flaxseed oil? Why is it only the fiber of flax? Why is it only the wearing? Because in milk and meat you're cooking it together, you're eating it together. Why shouldn't that be a problem? That's part of the chok, I guess. I don't know, it doesn't say, I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. For what? For shatnez? A couch? Yeah. You can? No, but if you're sitting on it, and it says if you sit on something and it bends over on you, you can't sit on it. That's why they used to have a big problem, the wagons years ago, some of them, the fancier ones, the rich people used to have the wagons, they'd have shatnez. And there were people who would not travel on the wagons unless the the seats were made of wood, not made of material on top, because it was a question of shatnez. Yeah? Quilts, all the things that come cover you is a problem. I don't know, why? Because they have a lamb's wool in the coat. That's a she'eilah. That's a I don't know, it's a she'eilah. Yeah. Anyway, the main thing is we should not be shatnez, we should be clear and we should have the proper אחדות that we need and we should not have any conflict, everything should be the best. Amen.