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Aharon felt upset that Shevet Levi didn’t bring a korban for the Chanukas Hamizbeiach. But Hashem told him that he would do something greater — he would light the Menorah! That’s why the Torah tells us here, after the presents of the Nesiim in the end of last week’s parsha, how the Menorah is lit:
Hashem told Moshe to tell Aharon how to light the Menorah.
When Aharon sets up the wicks in the Menorah, he should make sure that the wicks face the middle branch of the Menorah. Also, when he lights the wicks, he should make sure that the flame catches onto the wick until it is burning on its own.
That’s exactly how Aharon lit the Menorah!
In order to show how special it was for Aharon to light the Menorah, the Torah tells us again how the Menorah was made in a way of a neis, out of one piece of gold! In fact, according to the Medrash, Hashem made the Menorah Himself!
Now we learn how the Leviim started working in the Mishkan:
Hashem told Moshe to make the Leviim tahor, by sprinkling them with water from the Parah Adumah. They also had to cut off all their hair like a Metzora (a person with tzoraas), and put their clothes in the Mikvah.
Why did they have to have their hair cut off like a Metzora? Rashi explains that the Leviim were going to do the Avodah in the Mishkan in place of the Bechorim, who served Avodah Zarah with the Eigel Hazahav. Avodah Zarah is called “Zivchei Meisim,” and a Metzora is called a Meis. Since Avodah Zarah is similar to a Metzora, because both are called “Meis,” the Leviim who are now a kapara for the Bechorim had to make themselves tahor like someone who was a Metzora. That is why they had to shave off all of their hair.
The Leviim should also bring a korban of a young bull like the korban which a group of people who do Avodah Zarah have to bring, and another bull as a Korban Chatas.
All of the Leviim should stand in front of the Mishkan, and all the Yidden should watch them bringing their Korbanos — since the Leviim are asking Hashem to forgive all the Yidden.
When the Leviim bring these Korbanos, they will become special for Hashem, ready to work in the Mishkan.
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In one of today’s kapitelach (Ayin-Alef) there are four niggunim! It was the Rebbe’s 70th birthday kapitel and chassidim were so happy that they made many niggunim!
One of them is on the words “Kemofes Hayisi LoRabim, VeAta Machsi Oz.” Dovid Hamelech says, “I was an example to many people, and You give me strength!” When a Yid acts in a way that will be a Dugma Chaya for other people, Hashem gives him special hatzlacha in everything he does!
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TANYA
Shaar Hayichud Veha'emunah Perek Daled
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The Alter Rebbe is explaining how even though everything is part of Hashem’s chayus, it looks like it exists on its own.
The Medrash says that even if everyone in the world would get together and try to figure out how to create even just a little tiny wing of a mosquito (from nothing) and make it alive, they wouldn’t be able to!
That is because Hashem made the world out of NOTHING. This is something no one can understand, and something that only Hashem can do!
Today the Alter Rebbe tells us that the SAME thing is with the way Hashem HIDES in the world.:
Hashem made everything in such an amazing way! (Even if we only know a little bit about Hashem’s world, we can already see how everything is made exactly the way it needs to be!). So just by looking at the world, everyone should be able to figure out right away that Hashem made it all and is giving it chayus every second!
But it is NOT that way. We have to THINK about it to know that Hashem made everything and is the chayus of the world. And still, there are even people who say that the world made itself and there is chas veshalom NO Hashem!
How can this be?
Because the SAME GREAT Hashem who made the world with the SAME GREATNESS hid Himself in the world SO WELL, that nobody will know that He made it! Only when a Yid thinks and uses the kochos of his neshama can he know and feel it.
This hiding is from the name of Hashem called Elokim while Hashem making the world is with the name Yud- Kay-Vov-Kay.
When we praise Hashem in the beginning of Shemoneh Esrei, we use the words “Hagadol” and “Hagibor,” “great” and “mighty.” This is talking about these two infinite kochos of Hashem of Chesed and Gevurah, the power to create everything from nothing (Hagadol — Chesed), and the power to hide in it, so it looks like it exists on its own (Hagibor — Gevurah).
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The Tzemach Tzedek would make many niggunim! He used to sing while he would learn Torah, and sometimes would stop learning or writing to sing a niggun.
The Rebbe Maharash said that the Tzemach Tzedek’s niggunim were connected to what he was learning — he could tell what the Tzemach Tzedek was learning by what niggun he sang.
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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Asei #240) is the mitzvah that if our animal eats from someone else’s field, it is our responsibility. We need to pay for the damage! The halachos are explained in Perek Beis and Perek Vov of Mesechta Bava Kama, and Perek Hey of Mesechta Gitin.
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more about the responsibility a person has for when his animal causes damage.
Perek Gimmel teaches us the halachos about when something is hurt or broken because of an animal eating — today’s mitzvah.
One halacha in this perek is that if someone’s animal ate food that another person brought there, the owner of the food is responsible if it made that animal sick!
The Rambam brings an example from a story in the Gemara: Once a woman came to make bread in her neighbor’s house, and the neighbor went away so he wouldn’t look at her when she was kneading and baking the dough, because of tznius. The neighbor’s goat ate some of the raw dough and died! The Beis Din made the woman pay for the goat, because she shouldn’t have let the goat eat the dough, and the neighbor wasn’t there to keep the goat away.
Perek Daled explains the halachos of a person’s responsibility for making sure his animal doesn’t do any damage. Sometimes we say that the person should have been more careful, so it is his responsibility to pay for any damage that the animal did. For example, if a person didn’t make sure the fence was strong, he needs to pay for anything his animal broke if it escaped. Another example is if a person left his animal outside in the sun. Then he is also responsible, even if the fence was VERY strong, because the animal wasn’t comfortable, so it tried extra hard to escape.
Perek Hey tells us about 10 conditions Yehoshua made when the Yidden came into Eretz Yisroel. Many of them are about when we are allowed to use other people’s fields without asking.
One rule is that Yidden are only allowed to raise dogs if they keep them tied up with a strong chain. That’s because Eretz Yisroel is special land for GROWING things, and a dog likes to break and ruin things!
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In this perek we learn who is believed if a woman says she got a get or is an almanah, if she wants to get married again.
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Today is the first day after the Yemei Tashlumin to bring Korbanos for Shavuos. That means that the whole Yom Tov of Shavuos is over.
The Rebbe explains to us that there is something very special about this day!
Why?
A Yid has an achrayus to always add more in kedusha — Maalin Bakodesh!
How can we add MORE in kedusha when we just finished such a special Yom Tov?
The answer is that the main point of Torah is to USE it to live the way Hashem wants. We learn a lot of Torah, and we learn from it how we should act. The lesson of the day after Shavuos is to take all of the Torah we learned and got, and make it part of how we live!
The chayus of Shavuos and the days afterwards made us want to make hachlatos in learning and teaching Torah. Now is our chance to start keeping these hachlatos, even on a regular weekday! That is true Maalin Bakodesh, and that’s what’s special about Yud-Gimmel Sivan!
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The Rebbe told over this story many times during farbrengens — more than ten times throughout the years!
The Rebbe heard this story from the Frierdiker Rebbe, who said it in the name of the Rebbe Rashab, about his father-in-law, the son of the Tzemach Tzedek, whom the Frierdiker Rebbe was named after:
HoRav HaTzadik R’ Yosef Yitzchok, the son of the Tzemach Tzedek, was married to the daughter of R’ Yaakov Yisroel Cherkasser (who was not a Chabad chossid). While Chabad Chassidim daven for a long time, with a lot of hisbonenus, other types of Chassidim did not follow this derech. They would just daven together with the minyan, however long that took.
When R’ Yaakov Yisroel Cherkasser asked R’ Yosef Yitzchok about his derech in davening, R’ Yosef Yitzchok answered that he davens “Betzibur.” (This usually means davening with a minyan.) R’ Yaakov Yisroel was happy to hear that his son-in-law followed the same derech as him!
Once, however, R’ Yaakov Yisroel sent someone to call his son-in-law, and the messenger saw that he was still davening! R’ Yaakov Yisroel wondered why he was still davening, because the minyan had already finished!
A little while later, he sent his servant again, and he saw that R’ Yosef Yitzchok was still davening!
This happened a few times until R’ Yosef Yitzchok was finally finished davening, which took a long time. R’ Yaakov Yisroel Cherkasser asked his son-in-law, “Didn’t you say that you try to daven Betzibur?”
He answered that he heard from his father the Tzemach Tzedek, in the name of the Alter Rebbe, that the word “tzibur” comes from the word “Litzbor,” to gather. We gather together all of the ten kochos of the neshama, and all of the sparks of kedusha that we came in contact with, when we daven. That takes a long time!
See Likutei Sichos Chelek Beis p.477
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The best way to daven Shemoneh Esrei is to say the words quietly, but in a way that you can hear it by yourself.
Still, if someone said the words of Shemoneh Esrei so quietly that only his lips were moving, and he couldn’t hear the words, he is still yotzei.
But if someone just THOUGHT the words without saying them at all, it is not counted as davening.
In Tanya, the Alter Rebbe explains why saying words is so important:
The reason the neshama came into the world was not to make itself holy, but to make the body and the world holy, by using them for kedusha. Thinking does use the body, but not in a way that we can see. To do most mitzvos, we are supposed to actually say words or do things, which use Gashmius in a way that can easily be seen. That’s why even with the mitzvah of davening, where the main thing is kavana, it is very important to actually SAY the words using at least our lips. This way the neshama is able to use the guf for kedusha, which is the reason it came down into a guf.
See the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, siman Kuf-Alef and Tanya Perek Lamed-Ches
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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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We just learned at the end of last week’s parsha (Parshas Naso) that the Leviim carried the kelim of the Mishkan in the Midbar. The Navi Yeshaya says that when Moshiach comes, they will have Techiyas Hameisim, and will need to make themselves tahor to do their avodah! This is what will be said to the Leviim at that time:
סוּרוּ סוּרוּ צְאוּ מִשָּׁם טָמֵא אַל תִּגָּעוּ צְאוּ מִתּוֹכָהּ הִבָּרוּ נֹשְׂאֵי כְּלֵי ה׳
Suru Suru — Turn away, turn away!
Tze’u Misham — As you go away from there,
Tamei Al Tiga’u — Don’t touch anything tamei.
Tze’u Mitocha — When you go out of the Golus,
Hibaru Nosei Klei Hashem — Make yourself tahor, Kohanim and Leviim who carried Hashem’s keilim in the Midbar!
The Kohanim and Leviim will have to become tahor, because they will need to do the Avodah in the Beis Hamikdash Hashlishi!
See Yeshaya perek Nun-Beis posuk Yud-Alef and Pirush Rashi
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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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