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CHUMASH
Parshas Behar-Bechukosai - Sheini with Rashi
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In today’s Chumash, we learn more about Shemitah and Yovel.
In order to have enough food, the Yidden need the year before Shemitah to grow enough for THREE years: that year, the year of Shemitah when we can’t grow anything, and the third year, until the new food grows.
Hashem promises that if we keep Shemitah, enough will grow for three years!
The Torah also starts to teach us the mitzvos about owning land in Eretz Yisroel. We learned before that in the Yovel year the land returns to its original owner. Hashem says that we shouldn’t be upset that we have to give it back, because really the WHOLE land belongs to Hashem! It’s just that certain people are in charge of taking care of it for different amounts of time!
Sometimes a person might be very poor and need to sell his field so he has enough money to live.
If someone sold his part of Eretz Yisrael, it is like it is in Golus! He should try to buy it back, to bring it a “Geulah.”
For the first two years after he sells it, the person he sold it to HAS to let him buy it back. If he can’t pay enough himself, someone from his family should buy it back, so each part of Eretz Yisroel stays with the right family.
How much does it cost to buy it back? It depends how many years there are until Yovel. He pays the amount that those years are worth.
Even if nobody has money to buy it back, it will still go back in Yovel.
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In today’s Tehillim, in Kapitel Pey-Daled, we have a very special posuk which we learned about in Tanya! “Ki Shemesh UMagen Hashem Elokim!” “Because the name of Hashem and Elokim is like a sun and a cover.”
A mashal for Hashem is the sun, which shines very strong. If the sun shines on us with all of its might, it would make the word too hot! The world can be a place for us to live because there is a cover on the sun, so we can enjoy its light.
The same is with Hashem: The chayus from the name Havaya is so strong that we wouldn’t be able to feel like people — we would all just be part of Hashem. But the name Elokim covers up the name Havaya so the world can keep on being the way we see it.
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Mem-Ches
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Today we are learning more about what we learned yesterday — the two kinds of chayus of Hashem in the world.
Did you ever see a globe? It shows you the whole world, which is shaped like a ball, at one time!
You can close your eyes, and a picture of the whole world can be in your head at the same time! Hashem also knows the whole globe — the whole world. The difference is that we just have a PICTURE in our head. When Hashem knows, He is also making it and giving it chayus!
That chayus, though, is too strong to make the world the way WE see it. So Hashem gives the world another type of chayus. This chayus is what makes each thing in the world different, with the exact amount of chayus so it will look right. The mountain should be big and wide, and the bump in the road should be small. The huge tree and the tiny piece of grass each get just the right amount of chayus. Because this chayus is so hidden, we can see the world the way Hashem wants it, even with our gashmius eyes.
When we know this about Hashem and think about it, it will help us come to love Hashem. IY”H tomorrow we will see why.
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Today is thirty-two days of the Omer!
We don’t say Tachanun in Mincha because tonight is Lag B’omer.
There is a time in the morning that is called “Sof Zeman Kriyas Shema.” This means the latest time to say Shema in the morning to do the mitzvah right. Many people say Shema in the morning BEFORE davening, so they can daven at their regular time (which is sometimes after the time of Kriyas Shema) and not miss the mitzvah of Kriyas Shema in the morning.
When you do this, you should say the words “Ani Hashem Elokeichem,” and then again — “Ani Hashem Elokeichem — Emes.” (This way we will have 248 words in the three paragraphs of Shema, for each of the 248 parts of the body!) But when you say Shema with a different set of Tefillin, like Rabbeinu Tam or Shimusha Raba, you don’t say the words “Ani Hashem Elokeichem” again — you just say once, “Ani Hashem Elokeichem, Emes.”
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Once on Lag B’omer (5604), the Tzemach Tzedek taught something from the Baal Shem Tov:
There is a Posuk in Navi (Malachi) that says that Yidden are an “Eretz Chefetz” — a rich land, a land that Hashem wants.
Hashem hid lots of special and important things in the ground — like gold, diamonds, things like oil and coal that help us have electricity and heat, and vitamins that make plants grow. There are so many treasures in the ground, that nobody will ever be able to discover them all!
The Navi compares Yidden to the ground, because we are also full of treasures. Nobody will EVER be able to find all of the special kochos hiding inside every single Yid!
The Baal Shem Tov said, “I want to make sure that Yidden use all of the hidden treasures that are inside of them!”
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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Asei #236) is the same mitzvah again! If someone hurts another person, he has to pay that person money to make up for the 5 kinds of ways he hurt him — that he is worth less, that it hurt him a lot, for his doctor bills, for the time he couldn’t work, and because he was embarrassed.
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more halachos about being neighbors.
Perek Yud talks about how we need to be careful about bothering other people in a city. We can’t build something very smelly too close to a city, because everyone will be able to smell it!
Perek Yud-Alef teaches us about not bothering people who live close to us with smelly or noisy things, and what happens if we already built something very smelly or noisy: Do we need to stop using it?
Perek Yud-Beis teaches us the halachos of Ben Hametzer: If someone wants to sell a field, they first need to offer it to their next-door neighbor, because it will be the easiest for him to use it.
Did you know that the malochim argued that they are the “Ben Hametzer” when Hashem wanted to give the Torah to the Yidden? They said that the Torah is from Shomayim, and they are from Shomayim. So THEY are the “next-door neighbors” to the Torah, and Hashem has to offer it to them first! We will learn more halachos tomorrow in Rambam that Moshe used to explain to them that the Torah really belongs to the Yidden who live in this world!
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In Perek Chof-Beis, we learn how things are done in Beis Din. We learn that if someone knows a reason why the psak should be a certain way, he should say so, even if he is worried about what others will think — because the Torah says Midvar Sheker Tirchak! We need to stay away from letting something not true be said.
We learn that the best thing for a Beis Din to do is to try to get both sides to agree to compromise! This is the way of shalom.
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Today (Monday) is the last fast of Taanis BaHaB. “BaHaB” stands for Monday (beis), Thursday (hey), Monday (beis). There is a minhag brought in Shulchan Aruch to fast on Monday, Thursday and Monday in the month after Pesach and Sukkos, in case something not appropriate was done with the simcha of Yom Tov. (We first wait for the Shabbos after Rosh Chodesh before counting for BaHaB.)
In Tof-Shin-Mem-Ches, the Rebbe said a sicha on each day of BaHaB, and explained why the minhag is that even Chassidim, who are very careful with mitzvos, don’t usually fast. The Rebbe said that the day should still be used to add in inyonim of Torah and mitzvos, because every fast day is an Eis Ratzon!
Many bochurim, out of love for the Rebbe, would try to copy things that the Rebbe would do. Some of the bochurim who knew that the Rebbe fasted BaHaB, would also copy the Rebbe and fast this taanis.
One of these bochurim was there as the Rebbe said this sicha, and heard that the Rebbe said Chassidim should not actually fast on these days. He was sadly thinking, “Now I will have to stop keeping BaHaB like the Rebbe does.”
As he was thinking this, the Rebbe said, “But those who already started keeping this fast should continue, and it will bring them brachos for health and good things.”
To this day, this bochur still fasts BaHaB like the Rebbe said to!
For the rest of us, we have a hora’ah from the Rebbe not to fast. But we still need to make sure to use the Eis Ratzon of this day, to add in giving tzedakah, and other inyonim of Yiddishkeit, more than usual!
See sichos of BaHaB, Toras Menachem Tof-Shin-Mem-Ches vol. 3, p. 257
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In the bracha Velirushalayim in Shemoneh Esrei, we ask Hashem to bring us back to Yerushalayim.
We are also asking Hashem in this bracha to strengthen the Yerushalayim inside each of us.
Yerushalayim is not only a city on the map. It is something inside of every Yid! Tosfos writes that Yerushalayim is made up of two words, “Yirah Shaleim,” complete Yiras Shomayim.
In “Velirushalayim,” we are also asking Hashem to help us reach the highest level of Yiras Shomayim, so we can be Yidden the way Hashem wants us to be. Our Yiras Shomayim will be truly complete when Moshiach comes!
The Rebbe Maharash once said that any time a Yid asks for Yiras Shomayim, Hashem will always give it to him!
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Every thing we do, we do in a Torah way. The Torah teaches us exactly how Hashem wants us to act, in every part of our lives!
In Shulchan Aruch, we even learn about how we should put on our shoes:
First, we put on our right shoe, and then our left shoe.
We do this because we know that the Torah gives kavod to the right side, so we give kavod to our right side too. For example, during the Shivas Yemei Hamiluim, the seven days when they prepared the Mishkan to be used, oil was put on the hands and feet of the kohanim. The oil was placed on the right hand and foot first. We see more examples like this in the halachos of a Metzora and with Chalitzah!
If we have shoes with laces that need to be tied, we DON’T tie the right shoe first. We see from the mitzvah of Tefillin that kavod is given to the LEFT side for things that are tied, like Tefillin. So we tie our left shoe before tying our right shoe.
This halacha is also for other clothing. For clothes where we need to put on two of them (like socks) or two sides (like shirt sleeves), we put on the right side first. If we have ties or bows on other parts of our clothes, we tie the left side before tying the right side.
See the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch siman Beis, se’if daled
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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 nevuah that the Geulah will be such an incredible Geulah that we will even be able to understand why the Golus had to be. We will be able to even THANK Hashem for the hard parts of Golus!
וְאָמַרְתָּ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא אוֹדְךָ ה׳ כִּי אָנַפְתָּ בִּי יָשֹׁב אַפְּךָ וּתְנַחֲמֵנִי
Ve’amarta Bayom Hahu — You will say on the day of the Geulah:
Odcha Hashem Ki Anafta Bi — I will thank You Hashem, for being angry with me and putting me in Golus
Yashov Apcha Usenachameini — At that time, Your anger will go away, and You will comfort me.
Even though now a Yid can’t feel that way, since we are still in Golus, the Navi tells us that when the Geulah happens, we WILL be able to feel it!
See Yeshaya perek Yud-Beis posuk Alef, and Igros Kodesh chelek Yud-Beis p. 414
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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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