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CHUMASH
Parshas Behar-Bechukosai - Rishon with Rashi
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In today’s Chumash, we learn about the mitzvah of Shemitah and Yovel.
Hashem spoke to Moshe on Har Sinai, and told him the halachos of Shemitah. Rashi asks, why is it important to say that Hashem explained specifically this mitzvah while Moshe was on Har Sinai? Rashi answers that this posuk is an example to show us how EVERY mitzvah was said with all of its details on Har Sinai, just like this one!
Every seven years starting from when the Yidden come into Eretz Yisroel will be a Shemitah year. During Shemitah, we have to let the land in Eretz Yisroel rest. We can eat what grows in it, but we don’t own it during this year — ANYONE can come and take food from the fields to eat.
The Torah also tells us that every 7 Shemitah years is a year of Yovel! We blow the Shofar on Yom Kippur to announce that it is a Yovel year. In Yovel, everything goes back to its first owner — fields go back to the person who sold them, and slaves go free.
During Yovel, we also aren’t allowed to plant or work in the fields, like Shemitah.
The Torah tells us to make sure that when we sell a field or a slave, we need to charge a fair price, depending on how long it will be until Yovel. Since a field goes back to its original owner, and a slave is set free, the price should be based on how many years they will be able to use the field or the slave. That’s part of doing business in a fair way!
We also learn from these pesukim that we should first try to buy and sell from our fellow Yidden, if we have the option.
Besides for business dealings in an honest way, we also learn to be careful with the way we speak to others. We shouldn’t say something that will be hurtful to them. That’s not just with feelings — that’s with advice too! We need to remember that Hashem knows what we’re thinking, and if someone asks us for advice, we should give advice that is good for THEM, even if it’s not so good for us.
The last posuk of today’s Chumash tells us that if we keep these mitzvos of Shemitah, we will be able to live safely in Eretz Yisroel!
Rashi tells us that Golus Bavel lasted for 70 years. It was a kapara for the 70 Shemitah years the Yidden didn’t keep before going into Golus. During Golus Bavel, no Yid was able to work in the fields in Eretz Yisroel... This way, Eretz Yisroel “took back” the years we owed it.
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In Kapitel Pey-Alef (81), the posuk says “Tiku BaChodesh Shofar, Bakeseh LeYom Chageinu. Ki Chok LeYisroel Hu, Mishpat Leilokei Yaakov.” These pesukim are talking about blowing the shofar, which is the mitzvah of Rosh Hashana.
The Gemara says that it is also talking about the parnasa that every Yid will have for the coming year. There is an argument in the Gemara whether a person is judged on Rosh Hashana, or every day, or even every hour!
Chassidus explains in many places, including in a maamar of the Alter Rebbe which was published for the first time this year in honor of Lag B’omer, that it’s really not an argument — they’re just talking about different things! In Ruchnius, on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, it is decided what a person will have. But based on how they act every day and every moment, it is decided whether that Ruchnius koach he deserves will come into Gashmius and give him parnasa, or stay in Ruchnius for Gan Eden.
Some people think that since Hashem decided on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur how much parnasa they will have, it doesn’t matter if they daven with a minyan or go to a shiur in Torah or do other mitzvos. Either they will get it or they won’t get it!
But that’s not true! Even if in Shomayim it was decided that a person will get a lot, if he doesn’t earn Hashem’s bracha, he won’t get the bracha in Gashmius. And the opposite is also true — even if someone isn’t supposed to get a lot, with Hashem’s bracha that little bit can help him even more than a lot would!
See maamar of the Alter Rebbe, “Kad Nahir Yomama D’Shabbata”
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Mem-Ches
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In today’s Tanya, the Alter Rebbe tells us more about how Hashem’s chayus is hidden in the world. It has to be hidden, because the chayus from Ein Sof is too much for the world to handle! The Alter Rebbe teaches us that there are two kinds of chayus:
1) Memalei Kol Almin — This means that every thing in the world has its own special kind of chayus! This chayus makes a tree different than a stone, and a person different than an animal.
2) Sovev Kol Almin — This kind of chayus is the same for EVERYTHING Hashem makes. The Sovev chayus is what makes the Gashmius world exist Yeish Me’ayin, something from nothing!
This main chayus of Hashem is very strong, and it needs to be hidden because otherwise the world wouldn’t be able to exist in front of such a strong light of Hashem!
Here is a mashal for this kind of chayus: Imagine you go to a park and look around at everything so you won’t forget. Later, when you go home, you can close your eyes and think about how the whole park looks. It’s like the whole park is in your mind! You can see the WHOLE thing at one time!
The same way, Hashem knows the WHOLE world! Hashem knows about the entire world and every single thing inside — all at once!
But there is a very important difference: The park doesn’t change because you know about it. But with the world, the fact that Hashem knows about it is what makes it exist! This is the chayus of Sovev Kol Almin.
Even though Sovev Kol Almin is a much stronger chayus than the first one, it is COMPLETELY hidden in the world!
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Today is thirty-one days of the Omer!
After the Rebbe Rashab cut his nails, he would put a small piece of wood (like the match) inside before burning them.
~
The Rebbe Maharash had a Chossid named R’ Elya Abeler.
Once when he came into Yechidus, the Rebbe Maharash told him: “Elya, I am jealous of you! Hashem gave you something so special which I don’t even have! You are a business person, so you need to go to many places to do your business.
“Sometimes in the middle of talking to someone about business, you start to tell him a Yiddishe “vort” or a story from the Gemara, and make him excited to learn Torah!
“That makes me jealous of you, because when you do that, it brings Hashem so much nachas and Hashem gives you so many brachos for it.”
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Today we will learn the same mitzvah again (Mitzvas Asei #236)! If a person hurts someone else, he has to make up for what he did by paying him for the five kinds of things he damaged: That now he is worth less money because he is handicapped, that it hurt him, for the doctor bills, for the time he couldn’t work, and that he was embarrassed. A Beis Din decides how much money needs to be paid for each of these things.
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In today’s Rambam, we learn about how to be a good neighbor according to Torah.
In Perek Zayin, we learn about a person’s right to have a window. We can’t tell another person to block off his window so he won’t look at us, if he had his window there first. We also can’t block his window by building a wall of our house too close.
Perek Ches teaches us about when a person can build something that reaches out over his neighbor’s yard, like a porch. If his neighbor knew about it and didn’t stop him, the neighbor can’t change his mind later. But building a sukkah doesn’t prove anything, unless it stays up for a whole month after Sukkos, because everyone knows that a sukkah isn’t meant to stay!
In Perek Tes, the Rambam tells us when we need to leave extra space to make sure we don’t ruin something belonging to our neighbor. For example, if we build a tub for laundry, we have to build a strong one, and at least 3 tefachim away from our neighbor’s wall, so that the water won’t leak out and ruin his wall.
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Perek Chof-Alef has more halachos about being fair when we judge. One halacha is about what to do if two people come to Beis Din because they are arguing about something, and one of them is dressed in fancy clothes, and one is dressed in not nice ones. The Beis Din tells the people they need to either both wear not nice clothes, or both wear fancy clothes, because it’s hard to treat both people equally otherwise!
If someone comes to Beis Din who only speaks Portuguese, the judge isn’t allowed to get someone to come and translate what the person is saying. He needs to understand Portuguese himself! (But if he understands it, and doesn’t speak so well, he is allowed to get a person to translate the psak.)
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The Rebbe once told a mashpia in yechidus:
I guarantee that anyone who does the mivtzoyim as much and as best as they possibly can, will have hatzlacha one thousand times more in their own Avodas Hashem and in the chinuch of their children.
That means that if you make the time to do the mivtzoyim properly, you can learn in one hour something that would take you 1,000 hours! And if you do mivtzoyim in the proper way, you will see 1,000 times more hatzlacha in the Chinuch of your own family!
Kfar Chabad Magazine #672, Chassidim Ein Mishpacha #207
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In this bracha, we ask Hashem to rebuild Yerushalayim. We also ask Hashem to again make Dovid Hamelech king in that holy city, which will be when Moshiach comes.
In fact, EVERY time we mention Yerushalayim, we are supposed to ask Hashem to rebuild it. That’s why it is a minhag to write, after the word “Yerushalayim,” “Tiboneh Vesikonen Bimheira Veyameinu Amen.”
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We are learning more halachos about a bosis.
Imagine that you walked into your room on Friday night, after the meal, and saw that some tzedakah money was left on the stool you use to reach the tall shelf in your closet.
Even though the money was resting on the stool during Bein Hashmashos, when Shabbos starts, the stool did not become a bosis for the money. That’s because you didn’t mean for the coins to stay on the stool, that’s not where they belong!
So is it okay to move the stool over to the closet to take down the game you wanted to play?
The Shulchan Aruch says that it is better not to move the stool with the muktza still on it. First you should try to do “Niyur,” shaking off the muktza onto the floor.
So first you should push the stool over so the coins fall onto the floor. Then you can pick up the stool and move it to wherever you need to use it.
But if there was something on the stool that might break if you shake it off, then you don’t have to do Niyur. Since the stool is not a bosis, you are allowed to move it, even though the muktza is still on it.
Only if it is possible to shake it off without anything getting ruined, we should shake off the muktza.
Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, siman Shin-Tes
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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 famous nevuah about Kibbutz Galuyos, Hashem gathering back all of the Yidden when Moshiach comes. This is the second posuk of this nevuah:
וְנָשָֹא נֵס לַגּוֹיִם וְאָסַף נִדְחֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וּנְפֻצוֹת יְהוּדָה יְקַבֵּץ מֵאַרְבַּע כַּנְפוֹת הָאָרֶץ
Venasa Neis Lagoyim — Moshiach will let the goyim know to bring him Yidden that they know about, as a favor to him
Ve’asaf Nidchei Yisrael — And he will gather the lost Yidden
Unefutzos Yehuda Yekabeitz — And he will gather the scattered Yidden
Me’Arba Kanfos Ha’aretz — From the four corners of the world.
Wherever the Yidden are, Moshiach will gather them together. Even the goyim will help to make sure that we have every single Yid!
See Yeshayahu perek Yud-Alef, posuk Yud-Beis, and Rashi there
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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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