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Today Moshe Rabbeinu is teaching the Yidden about Tzoraas on the wall of a house, which will happen to the Yidden when they live in Eretz Yisroel.
We learn that Hashem gives Tzoraas on a house as a special gift to the Yidden. Some of the Emoriim (who lived in Eretz Yisroel before the Yidden came there) hid a lot of money under their houses before they left Eretz Yisroel. When the Yidden came and took these houses, this money was hidden. The only way they would find the money is if they had to knock down the house! So having Tzoraas on the house turned out to be a big gift from Hashem, letting them find these hidden treasures.
Here are the details of the mitzvah:
If a person sees dark green or dark red spots on the wall of his house, he has to show them to the kohen, because they might be Tzoraas. But before the kohen comes, the person needs to take everything out of the house. Because if the kohen says the house is tomei, everything inside will become tomei too!
First the kohen comes and checks to see if the spot looks like tzoraas. Tzoraas spots look like they are deeper than the wall. If the spot looks this way, the kohen closes off the house for a week to see if the tzoraas gets bigger or goes away.
When the kohen comes back again to check, if the spot got bigger, the person needs to take out that whole part of the wall and build a new wall there. If tzoraas comes back on the new wall, the whole house needs to get broken down!
Once the tzoraas goes away, the person needs to bring the same kind of korbanos as we do for tzoraas on a person’s body or his clothes.
This is the end of the mitzvah of tzoraas, and now we will learn about other kinds of Tumah:
One kind of tumah that a man can get is called Tumas Zav. This kind of tumah can happen when a person is sick. If a man becomes tamei in this way, anything he touches can be tomei too.
To become tahor, he has to wait 8 days from when he was tomei, and then go to the mikvah and bring two birds as korbanos.
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In the last perek of today’s Tehillim, Dovid Hamelech tells us “Sur Me’Ra, Va’asei Tov, Bakeish Shalom Verodfeihu” — “stay away from bad, and do good, and try to make shalom.”
The Baal Shem Tov explains that in every gashmius’dike thing in this world, there’s a part which is good and a part which is bad. The part that’s bad is the selfish feelings (taava) that a person has for the thing. The good part is the chayus of Hashem that we get from the Gashmius.
This is what the Tehillim is saying: Stay away from the selfish part, and look for the GOOD part, the chayus from Hashem!
Then, we have to make shalom between the Gashmiyus and the Ruchnius (the chayus of Hashem). This way, you’ll feel Hashem’s chayus even when you’re using the Gashmius.
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Mem-Daled
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In Tanya, the Alter Rebbe is teaching us how every Yid is able, with the koach of Moach Shalit Al Halev, to win over his Yetzer Hara and make his mitzvos more pure and Ruchnius’dik!
First we learned how to win over the Yetzer Hara by bringing out the koach of Mesiras Nefesh we have inside of ourselves.
Now we are learning how to use our mind to think about our connection with Hashem, which will help us have Yiras Hashem and Ahavas Hashem to make our mitzvos more aidel and Ruchnius’dik.
First we learned what to think so we will have Yiras Hashem. Then we learned two ways of thinking to help us feel Ahavas Hashem, that can work for everyone!
If we think about these two things, we can feel our ahava for Hashem:
1) To love Hashem because He is our neshama and our chayus
2) To love Hashem because He is our true Tatte.
These two kinds of love for Hashem really also have Yiras Hashem together with them:
1) We are afraid to do an aveira which will separate us from our true chayus
2) We are afraid to do an aveira which will take us away from our true Tatte, Hashem.
When we remind ourselves about this, we wake up the love for Hashem we have inside of ourselves. This makes our mitzvos more Ruchnius’dik, and able to go up to Olam HaYetzirah, the olam of feeling!
But if we think even more about how we love Hashem in this way, and how we are afraid to become separate from Hashem chas veshalom, then we are using our own minds, not just the love that’s hidden inside of us. Since it comes from our understanding, our mitzvos can go even HIGHER! They go up to the olam of Beriyah, the olam of understanding!
In fact, this ahava also includes Ahava Rabbah, a level of ahava which connects our mitzvos even with the world of Atzilus!
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Today is twenty days of the Omer!
Why do you think a neshama comes into the world? Why is a baby born, with a neshama, to live for 70 or 80 years?
It is because the neshama has a special shlichus to do here.
What is this shlichus?
Here’s what the Alter Rebbe heard from R’ Mordechai (one of the Baal Shem Tov’s talmidim), who heard the following from the Baal Shem Tov:
The neshama’s special shlichus in the world is to help another Yid in what he needs: In Gashmius — like to make sure they are happy or have food, and especially in Ruchnius — to help another Yid be closer to Hashem.
Of course that doesn’t mean that all of the other Torah and mitzvos a Yid does don’t count! They are all there to help make this Shlichus complete.
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Today's mitzvah is the same as yesterday’s: (Mitzvas Asei #108) This mitzvah is about Mei Nidah — the water that is mixed with the ashes of the Parah Adumah. There are some kinds of things that it makes tamei, and other things that it makes tahor! (For example, it makes someone who gets sprinkled with it, tahor; but the person who sprinkles it becomes tomei!) The mitzvah is to follow all of these halachos.
At the end of this mitzvah, the Rambam tells us the source of all of the mitzvos of Tumah and Tahara in the Torah (Parshas Shemini, Tazria, Metzora, and Chukas), where they are explained in Mishnayos (Seder Taharos), and which mesechtos explain which mitzvos.
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more halachos about using the Mei Nidah for making someone (or something) Tahor from Tumas Meis.
Perek Yud-Alef: In this perek we learn all of the details of how the water is actually sprinkled, using the Eizov branch.
Perek Yud-Beis: We learn what happens when more than one person or thing are sprinkled at one time. What if the water drips from one onto the other one? What if the water went onto one part of something, like only the lid of a pot? All of the answers are in today’s Rambam!
One of the things the Rambam teaches us about is called a Klubkerin — what we would call a winter coat! Even though there is an inside soft lining and an outside made of something else, it’s called just one thing, and if the water was sprinkled on any part, the whole thing is tahor.
Perek Yud-Gimmel: This perek teaches us about the extra rules of tumah and tahara we have with things used for the Mei Nidah.
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We learn many halachos about lighting the Menorah. Here is one very important halacha: If someone only has enough money to do one mitzvah — lighting the Menorah or lighting Shabbos candles, he should get the Shabbos candles!
Why? Because the most important thing is to have Shalom Bayis, which is what Shabbos candle lighting is about!
Mazel Tov! Now we have finished a whole Sefer of the Rambam, Zemanim!
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If you look around at trees in a forest, you will see that no two trees are exactly alike.
If you look around at people, you will see the same thing — we all look very different.
Guess what? We all ARE different inside, too! People don’t all think the same way. Some people think faster or slower, come up with different ideas, or get worried about different things. One person might think that seeing something is funny, and another person might think it is scary!
Can you think of some things that you think about differently than your friend or sibling?
Hashem made us that way, on purpose! Hashem WANTS that “Ein Deiyoseihem Shavos,” that people shouldn’t think the same way. Every person has a different shlichus, and they understand things according to what they need for this shlichus. Hashem also wants us to share our different ideas with each other, and that will help us understand the Torah and mitzvos even better!
Since that’s the way Hashem wants it, there are two things we need to know:
1) We shouldn’t feel like we need to think the same as everyone else! Hashem created us in a way that we each have our own way of understanding things.
2) On the other hand, we shouldn’t think that we are always right! Even if we feel very strongly about something, we should still respect another person’s opinion. Just like Hashem created us to think strongly in our own way, Hashem also created the other person in a way that he thinks strongly in his own way, which he needs for HIS shlichus!
Even more, there may be something we can learn in our own shlichus from hearing what someone else has to say!
Only when we all work together in our own different ways of understanding will we be able to finish the main shlichus of all Yidden, to bring the Geulah!
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When the Anshei Kneses Hagedolah saw that many people didn’t know how to daven properly anymore, they set up a seder for davening so that everyone would speak to Hashem with the right kavod. The main part of the davening that they put together was Shemoneh Esrei. This is 18 (and later 19) brachos where we ask Hashem for everything we need.
The first three brachos are praise for Hashem, the middle 12 ask for the needs we have, and the last three again praise and thank Hashem.
The second bracha of Shemoneh Esrei that asks for our needs is “Hashiveinu Avinu.” In this bracha we ask Hashem to help us do teshuvah and show us the proper way to learn Torah and do mitzvos.
This bracha is one of the times in Shemoneh Esrei where we talk to Hashem as our Father. Just like a father has the achrayus to teach his children how to behave, we ask Hashem to show us how to act, so we can do our shlichus in the world properly.
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Even though we can’t move muktza, it is not asur to touch it if it is something that usually doesn’t move. The isur of muktza is only Tiltul Muktza, moving something that is muktza.
For example, a car is definitely muktza. But it won’t move just by touching it, because it is so heavy. So it isn’t a problem to touch it on Shabbos.
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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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The Navi Yeshaya said a lot of nevuos about Moshiach!
The Navi told his generation (Perek Beis) how foolish it would be to try to copy the goyim. Soon Moshiach will come, and the goyim will all be running to serve Hashem! It makes no sense to follow the goyim, when even they will soon see that the truth is in the Torah.
וְהָיָה בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים נָכוֹן יִהְיֶה הַר בֵּית ה׳ בְּרֹאשׁ הֶהָרִים וְנִשָּׂא מִגְּבָעוֹת וְנָהֲרוּ אֵלָיו כָּל הַגּוֹיִם
Vehaya Ba’acharis Hayamim — This nevuah will happen in the end of the days of Golus
Nachon Yihiyeh Har Beis Hashem Berosh Heharim — The house of Hashem, the Beis Hamikdash, will be in its place on the top of the most important mountain
Venisa Mig’vaos — Which will have more nisim done on it than were done on any other mountain or hill, including Har Sinai!
Venaharu Eilav Kol Hagoyim — And all of the nations will be rushing towards it, to serve Hashem there too.
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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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