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Hashem tells Moshe Rabbeinu that he will pass away today, Zayin Adar. He should bring Yehoshua to the Mishkan, and Hashem will get him ready for his new job.
Hashem tells Moshe that the Yidden are going to serve Avodah Zarah when they go into Eretz Yisroel. Hashem will be very upset, and He will pretend to ignore the Yidden, and lots of not good things will happen. The Yidden will wonder where Hashem is!
Now Hashem tells Moshe to write down the song of Haazinu, which reminds us what the Yidden promised to do.
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Today’s shiur Tehillim is kapitelach Chof-Gimmel to Chof-Ches. Until Yom Kippur, we continue adding three extra kapitelach. Today we say kapitelach Tzadik-Zayin, Tzadik-Ches, and Tzadik-Tes.
In today’s Tehillim, there are two pesukim (Kapitel Chof-Hey, pesukim ches and tes) that talk about how Hashem shows us the right way to live. The last words of these pesukim are “VeYelamed Anavim Darko” — Hashem teaches humble people His path.
The Rambam says that this is talking about two things that Hashem gives to Yidden to help them do teshuvah and do the right things:
1) He sends them Neviim (and Rebbeim) who teach them the ways of Hashem and how to do teshuva, and
2) Hashem makes a person to WANT to do the right thing when they learn about it.
These two things together make it much easier for us to do JUST what Hashem wants!
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TANYA
Igeres Hakodesh Siman Chof
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This letter of the Alter Rebbe is very special. It was written only a few days before the Alter Rebbe passed away.
This letter teaches us how precious gashmiyus is — it is even much more precious than ruchniyus! It will show us how special our mitzvos are, since they are done with gashmiyus things.
We will see that for there to be Gashmius, it needs the HIGHEST koach of Hashem that there could be, and that’s what makes it so special!
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Today, we learn that the “Tof” of the word Teshuvah teaches us to be serious about doing what Hashem wants from us.
R’ Zushe of Annapoli explained that Teshuva has five parts. We can find all of the parts by looking at the letters of the word “Teshuvah”!
The Tof stands for “Tomim Tihiyeh Im Hashem Elokecha” — be “tomim” with Hashem.
What is “tomim”? It can mean a lot of things, and there are many ways for a person to be tomim. But in Teshuvah, it means taking what Hashem wants seriously. It means to be “erenst” (“serious” in Yiddish) about doing what Hashem asks us to. We need to feel how important it is to us and do it with our whole heart!
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SEFER HAMITZVOS
Mitzvas Lo Saasei #10, #47, #60, #6, #5, #2, #3, #4, #15, Asei #186, Lo Saasei #23, #24
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Now we have started learning Hilchos Avodah Zarah, the halachos about not serving Avodah Zarah. Hashem gave us many mitzvos about keeping away from Avodah Zarah, so we will be learning many mitzvos every day while we learn these perakim!
1) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #10) We are not allowed to learn about or think about Avodah Zarah, for example to learn about a religion which is Avodah Zarah. We are also not allowed to look at and think about an image of Avodah Zarah, like a picture or statue.
2) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #47) “VeLo Sasuru” — This is a mitzvah for our thinking. We are not allowed to feel free in our mind to think into non-Torah ideas. Our thoughts need to be only according to the way Torah teaches us. The second half of this mitzvah is not to let our minds get too busy thinking about taavos, enjoying things which won’t help our Avodas Hashem. (This is one of the 6 Mitzvos Temidiyos, the mitzvos we need to keep ALL the time.)
3) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #60) “Birchas Hashem” — We are not allowed to give the opposite of a bracha to Hashem.
4) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #6) We are not allowed to do things to an Avodah Zara if that is how it is served, even if it is not bowing down to it or bringing it korbanos. So if a certain Avodah Zarah is served by throwing a rock at it, we aren’t allowed to throw a rock (even though it’s okay to throw rocks in other places where they won’t hurt anyone!)
5) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #5) We are not allowed to bow to or bring korbanos to ANY Avodah Zarah, even if that’s not how most people worship that Avodah Zarah.
6) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #2) We are not allowed to make an idol ourselves or pay someone else to make an idol, even if you won’t use it.
7) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #3) We are not allowed to make an idol for someone else who will use it as an Avodah Zarah, even for a goy.
8) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #4) We can’t make a statue of a person, even just because it looks pretty.
9) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #15) We are not allowed to say things that get a group of people to do Avodah Zarah. A person who does this is called a Madiach.
10) (Mitzvas Asei #186) If there is a city of people who serve Avodah Zarah, we need to burn it down! This is called an Ir Hanidachas, a city that let themselves be convinced by a Madiach to serve Avodah Zarah.
11) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #23) We can’t rebuild an Ir Hanidachas after it was burned down.
12) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #24) We can’t take anything from an Ir Hanidachas — it ALL needs to be burned.
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RAMBAM
Hilchos Avodas Kochavim
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Perek Alef: In today’s Rambam, the Rambam explains how people starting serving Avodah Zarah in the first place. Of course Adam Harishon knew that Hashem created the world! How did so many people start davening to idols?
At first, it was just a little mistake — people thought that since Hashem created the sun and moon, they need to show the sun and moon special kavod. Then later, they forgot that Hashem made the sun and moon in the first place...
Later, Avraham Avinu thought for a long time and realized that Hashem created the world! He started teaching everyone again to daven only to Hashem, and NOT to Avodah Zarah.
In Perek Beis, the Rambam explains to us why we have so many mitzvos to keep us away from Avodah Zarah: Because it is easy for a person to make a mistake. We sometimes have questions about Hashem and Torah, but many times we just didn’t know enough to really understand. If we just do whatever we think makes sense, it is very easy to end up serving Avodah Zarah. So we have many mitzvos to keep us from making a mistake!
Perek Gimmel teaches us halachos about when something a person does is considered Avodah Zarah. If a person makes a statue of a person, he gets punished, but it is fine to paint a picture of someone.
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We finish learning the halachos about giving a field as a donation to the Beis Hamikdash. We also learn the halachos of donating a house, or an animal that can’t be a korban (like a non-kosher animal or one with a mum). An animal that IS good for a korban is sold to people who need to bring a korban, and the money goes to Bedek Habayis (maintenance of the Beis Hamikdash).
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In the Kisvei HoArizal, the writings of the Arizal, it says that the seven days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are like Chol Hamoed. That’s why some people do less work on these days, so they can think about the avodah of the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah.
The seven days of the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah match up with the seven days of the week, and we have an opportunity to fix up the mistakes of each and prepare for the next year.
Now is the time to make sure our schedule of each day of the week is the way a Yid and a Chossid’s seder needs to be!
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There are certain times that we daven every day. We daven Shacharis, Mincha, and Maariv. We say Modeh Ani right when we get up, and Kriyas Shema She’al Hamitah before we go to sleep.
During the day, we also can daven to Hashem, either in our own words, or using the holy words of Tehillim. Dovid Hamelech put together the Tehillim so we would have the words to beg Hashem to help us.
Usually, we don’t say Tehillim at night, based on the Kisvei Ho’Arizal.
But during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, we do say Tehillim, even at night!
See Sefer Haminhagim
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In the halachos of Teshuvah, the Rambam teaches that the way we are judged depends on what we do. We can make a difference in our judgment by doing more mitzvos!
Since the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah is the main time of judgement, it is a minhag to give extra tzedakah, do more maasim tovim and be more careful with our mitzvos during this time. We also spend more time on our davening, and learn things that inspire us to do teshuvah.
It is not our minhag to say Selichos during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah.
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לעילוי נשמת הרה״ח ר׳ דניאל יצחק ע״ה בן ר׳ אפרים שי׳ מאסקאוויץ
שליח כ"ק אדמו"ר נשיא דורנו למדינת אילינוי
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During World War II, the Frierdiker Rebbe started a new campaign about Moshiach: “L’alter L’Teshuvah, L’alter L’Geulah!” If we do Teshuvah right away, the Geulah will come right away!
At the same time that the Frierdiker Rebbe was telling everyone that Moshiach could come RIGHT NOW, the Frierdiker Rebbe was also working on spreading Yiddishkeit and setting up cheders — projects that take a long time.
People were confused! If Moshiach is coming right now, then we don’t need to worry about making a new cheder or sending a shliach to a faraway town! Moshiach will take care of it.
When they asked the Frierdiker Rebbe, they were told that there is an example for this in the Torah!
In the midbar, the Yidden traveled to many places. In some of these places, they stayed for 19 years. In others, they left after just one day! But no matter what, they had to set up the whole Mishkan and the whole Machaneh as if they were going to stay for a very long time.
In Golus, we also have to keep these two feelings together. We need to have full bitachon that Hashem will make nisim and Moshiach will come RIGHT NOW! But at the same time, we need to plan things based on the way they are in Golus. Of course, we will be VERY happy if we don’t need to finish those plans, because Moshiach will take care of them for us!
See farbrengen Parshas Vayeishev, 5717
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לע"נ התינוק זאב ארי' ע"ה בן יבלט"א הרה"ח ר' שניאור זלמן שי' גליק
נפטר ב' מנחם אב ה'תשע"ג
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