Post Pesach Wrap Up.

I hope everyone had a nice Pesach. I saw and heard some interesting divrei torah over Pesach. Here are a couple of highlights.

1) If you rent a hotel room on Pesach that has a mini bar, are you a) chayav in bedika b) obligated to get rid of the chametz in the mini bar.

I saw that Rav Asher Weiss talks about this and he takes it as a davar pashut that not only are you chayav in bedika but you must get rid of the food in the mini bar. His reasoning is that you have been m'kabeil acharyus on the food and the halacha is that if a Jew has chametz of a non Jew in his reshus and he is m'kabeil achrayus on the chametz then he has a chiyuv bedika.

When looking into the sugya a little a did find that it is a machlokes Rambam vs Ra'avad where the non Jew imposes a chiyuv achrayus ba'al korcha. However, it might not be nogeia to this case because my understanding of that machlokes is that it is a situation where the non Jew is acting against the laws of the medina. (The case in the gemara is where the army forces the city to host the army against the laws of the land). It could be my understanding of the machlokes is not accurate and it is nogeia are case but on the surface it doesn't seem to be.

I spoke this issue over with a noted Talmud Chacham and he was mesupak. He said it probably depends on what exactly your obligations are to the hotel regarding the food.

2) I spent the last days in Flatbush and the Rav of my in-law's shul spoke a little about Yom Tov Sheini. He raised in an interesting shailah discussed in the Sha'arei Teshuva. Can a ben Chutz L'Aretz cook for a ben EY on Yom Tov Sheini. The two reasons the Rav mentioned was a) it is not "lachem". Just like you can't cook for a non Jew because it is not "lachem" so too you can't cook for a ben EY since it is not Yom Tov for him b) there is an issur hachana. For the ben Chutz L'Aretz it is Yom Tov and for the ben EY it is a weekday. When you cook for the ben EY you are cookimg on Yom Tov for a weekday.

I looked up the Sha'arei Teshuva and he just quotes this opinion withouit bringing the reasons so I didn't have a chance to see these reasons inside. (Although the Rav mentioned that it is discussed in the sefer Yom Tov Sheini K'Hilchaso. In any event I think one can be choleik on both reasons.

As far as the reason of "lachem", it would depend on how you learn the nature of the drasha. Is it excluding anyone who is not keeping Yom Tov, or is it excluding only those who are not in the parsha of Yom Tov. A ben EY has a mitzva of Yom Tov, just today it happens to be a weekday for him. So maybe it is still called "lachem".

Regarding the reason of hachana, I don't see how it is hachana. L'ma'aseh the ben Chutz L'Aretz is cooking on Yom Tov for today. Just because it is not Yom Tov for the ben EY doesn't mean you are cooking for a different day. Why look at the gavra you are cooking for, look at which day you are cooking for.