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CHUMASH
Parshas Re'eh - Shvi'i with Rashi
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Moshe Rabbeinu is telling the Yidden about more mitzvos they will do in Eretz Yisroel, and reviews the Shalosh Regalim, the three Yomim Tovim where we come to the Beis Hamikdash!
If you have an animal, and it has a firstborn baby, you need to give the baby to the kohen! If the baby has no mum, the kohen will bring it as a korban and eat the meat. If there IS a mum, it can’t be a korban, but he can still have it for himself.
On Pesach, we bring a Korban Pesach! We only eat Matzah the whole Yom Tov long.
We count 7 weeks from the day we cut the Omer, and then it’s Shavuos! On Shavuos we come again to the Beis Hamikdash.
Sukkos we also come to the Beis Hamikdash, and are so happy to be close to Hashem!
When we come three times a year to the Beis Hamikdash, we should bring korbanos to Hashem according to the bracha Hashem gave to us. If Hashem bentched us with a lot, we should bring MANY korbanos!
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Today we are finishing the entire Sefer Tehillim, kapitelach Kuf-Mem-Hey to Kuf-Nun!
The first kapitel of today’s Tehillim is very special! It starts with the words “Tehillah LeDovid,” which is the third posuk of Ashrei. We say Ashrei three times every day in davening! (Twice in Shacharis and once in Mincha.) Ashrei goes in the order of the Alef-Beis — one posuk for each letter (except for Nun).
The posuk that starts with Zayin is “Zecher Rav Tuvcha Yabiu.”
There is a long maamar of the Alter Rebbe in his “Siddur Im Dach” (Siddur with maamorim of Chassidus) that explains this posuk. (The Rebbe mentions this maamar in today’s Hayom Yom!)
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TANYA
Igeres Hakodesh Siman Yud
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This letter is also going to explain about Tzedakah, and was sent to encourage Chassidim to give a lot of tzedakah!
Our parents have a special Shlichus from Hashem to take care of us, and they love us!
How do they love us and take care of us? One of the ways is by giving us all of the Gashmius things we need — like food and snack, and beds to sleep in, and taking us to school, and giving us hugs and kisses.
Since they take care of us with all of this Gashmius, it has to be JUST RIGHT to work. (That’s how Gashmius goes!) If they give us a backpack as big as our room, we won’t be able to carry it and we won’t be able to use it! If they give us one tiny jelly bean for snack, we’ll still be hungry! If they squeeze us too hard when they hug us, it could hurt!
Hashem also loves us, takes care of us, and gives us chayus because of His mitzvos. But because we get the chayus from the GASHMIUS mitzvos that we do, they have to be just right! Hashem tells us EXACTLY how each mitzvah needs to be done.
Over the next few days, we will see what this has to do with the mitzvah of tzedakah.
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We start saying Ledovid Hashem Ori today in davening! It is the minhag of the Rebbeim to practice blowing the Shofar — just one time — during the day. (This year we don’t because it is Shabbos.) Tomorrow we will start blowing the shofar after davening.
We learned earlier in the Hayom Yom about how the Alter Rebbe’s maamorim started off as short pieces, called “verter,” and later became longer and longer until the Alter Rebbe was saying long maamorim.
The Mitteler Rebbe was the next generation of Chassidus after the Alter Rebbe — and the Chassidus was on a whole new level! The Mitteler Rebbe’s Chassidus is called “Rechovas Hanahar” — the wideness of the river. His maamorim took the inyonim that the Alter Rebbe first taught, and explained them very well, with lots of long mashalim.
Many of the Mitteler Rebbe’s maamorim are explaining the Alter Rebbe’s — but they are much longer! You can find maamorim in the Alter Rebbe’s “Torah Ohr” that are just a few pages long. When the Mitteler Rebbe wrote these maamorim, they were TENS of pages long!
Today the Rebbe tells us that even the Mitteler Rebbe’s maamorim didn’t start off so long in the beginning. It took time! In the beginning, the Mitteler Rebbe said short maamorim. For example, he chazered a maamar of the Alter Rebbe that is printed in the “Siddur Im Dach,” on the posuk “Zecher Rav Tuvcha” (which is in today’s Tehillim). When he chazered it, it was in six parts, with some explanation, but only a little bit more than is printed in the siddur.
(If you look in the maamarim of the Mitteler Rebbe, you can see that in the first year he was Rebbe, there was a maamar “Zecher Rav Tuvcha,” which maybe is the maamar today’s Hayom Yom is speaking about!)
One of the things we can learn from this helps us in our avodah in Chodesh Elul. We can remember that we have a month to prepare, and we don’t have to do it all at once! It will take us time! At the beginning, our teshuvah might start out small, but it can get bigger and bigger and more and more until we are SURE we fixed up the past year and we’re ready for a Shana Tova Umesuka!
We also see this in the minhag of blowing the Shofar. We don’t start off right away tomorrow blowing the shofar perfectly, on the first day of Rosh Chodesh we practice. On the second day we will already be able to blow the shofar properly!
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Today we learn two NEW mitzvos!
1) (Mitzvas Asei #26) A kohen has a mitzvah to bentch the Yidden every day! (Outside of Eretz Yisroel, the kohanim bentch the Yidden only on Yom Tov.)
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Naso: כֹּה תְבָרֲכוּ אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אָמוֹר לָהֶם
The details are explained in the last perakim of Mesechta Megillah, Mesechta Taanis, and Mesechta Sotah perek Zayin.
2) (Mitzvas Asei #12) Men need to wear Tefillin Shel Rosh, tefillin on their head. This mitzvah is said four times in the Torah!
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Vaeschanan: וְהָיוּ לְטֹטָפֹת בֵּין עֵינֶיךָ
The details are explained in Mesechta Menachos perek Daled.
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RAMBAM
Hilchos Tefillah - Tefillin U'Mezuzah V'Sefer Torah
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Perek Yud-Daled: In this perek, the Rambam teaches us about Birchas Kohanim, the special words that kohanim say to bring Hashem’s brachos to the Yidden! In the Beis Hamikdash, the kohanim would bentch the Yidden using the special Sheim Hameforash, the name of Hashem that is written Yud-Kay-Vov-Kay, and pronouncing it properly. After Shimon Hatzadik passed away, they stopped using this name of Hashem, even in the Beis Hamikdash, in case someone who didn’t act properly would learn it.
Perek Tes-Vov: We learn about times when a kohen shouldn’t do Birchas Kohanim, like a kohen who is drunk. But being a rasha shouldn’t stop a kohen from bentching the Yidden — because it’s a mitzvah, and we don’t make a rasha into a bigger rasha by stopping him from doing more mitzvos!
In the last halacha, the Rambam says that any kohen that bentches the Yidden is bentched himself, like the posuk says, that Hashem says to Avraham, “Va’avarecha Mevarachecha, “I will bentch those who bentch you.” From here we see, “Kol Hamevarech Misbarech” — when someone gives a bracha to another person, he is bentched from Hashem!
Then we start a new set of halachos: Halachos about Tefillin, mezuzah, and Sefer Torah!
Perek Alef: The Rambam starts by telling us about Tefillin. (Many of these halachos are also for mezuzos and Sifrei Torah, which is why these halachos are all in the same set of halachos.) There are 10 things that Tefillin need to have in order to be kosher! The first two are about how they are made:
1) They need to be written with ink: We make ink by mixing soot from burning candles with sap and honey, crushing it into powder, and drying it. We mix it with a liquid (like gallnut juice) and write with that. One halacha is that the ink has to be BLACK — if even one letter is written in another color, even gold, they are posul!
2) They have to be written on parchment: There are actually three kinds of parchment! Parchment is made from the skin of an animal, which we soak in things that make it get smaller and harder. Once it is ready, it is called g’vil. But the g’vil can be separated into two parts — the klaf (the part facing outside of the animal, where hair grows) and the duchsustos (the part facing inside, where the meat of the animal is). It is best to write a Sefer Torah on g’vil, a mezuzah on duchsustos, and Tefillin on klaf. (Nowadays, we use only one kind of parchment, which has some of the top and most of the bottom rubbed off. This makes the parchment a lighter color.)
The Rambam also teaches us about the kavana the sofer needs to have when he is writing. If he writes Hashem’s name without thinking about the kedusha of Hashem, the tefillin (or mezuzah, or Sefer Torah) is posul!
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more about clay keilim and when they can become Tomei.
This perek teaches us about when a clay keili is broken — when are the pieces big enough that they are counted as their own keilim?
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Elul is the most important month of the whole year. Because during Elul, we think about what we did the whole year: We fix what needs to be fixed, we decide to do even more the things that were good. We have a whole month to do this, so when Rosh Hashana comes, Hashem will see that we are the way we should be and give us a good year!
The truth is, though, that this isn’t the only Cheshbon.
Every month, the day before Rosh Chodesh is called “Yom Kippur Katan,” when we make a cheshbon of what happened that whole month, so we’ll be ready for the new chayus of Hashem that comes with the new month!
Every week, before Shabbos (Thursday night), we make a Cheshbon to finish off the week and get ready for a new parsha in the Torah!
And every day, by Kriyas Shema She’Al Hamitah, we make a cheshbon of what happened that day, so we can finish off the Avodah of the day and get ready for the new Avodah of the next day!
Of course we don’t take SO much time during the year with the Cheshbon — we need to work on the Avodah! But in Elul we spend more time so we’ll be ready for a WHOLE NEW special chayus that will come in the new year!
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As we get ready to start the main part of Pesukei Dezimra, we say some pesukim and another kapitel of Tehillim.
We say the pesukim of Hashem Melech, how Hashem is the King of the world in the past, present, and future. When Moshiach comes, we will all be able to see the Malchus of Hashem in the world!
The Arizal teaches that this is a very special part of Tefillah, connected to the Ruchniyus’dike world of Atzilus. That’s why even if you are in the middle of a different part of davening, it’s the minhag to stand with the minyan when they are saying these lines.
We finish off by asking Hashem, in Hosheinu, to take us out of Golus.
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There is an important rule about brachos: “Sofeik Brachos Lehokel.” That means that if there is a sofeik, a doubt about a bracha, we are not strict to say another bracha.
What does that mean?
The halachos about brachos can sometimes be complicated. In halacha, sometimes it is not clear if a person needs to say a certain bracha or not. This is called a sofeik, a doubt. In these cases, the Chachomim say, “Sofeik Brachos Lehokel!” Since by saying a bracha that maybe we don’t need to say, we are possibly saying Hashem’s name for no reason, we DON’T say the bracha that we are not sure about.
But this is only where there is a sofeik in the halacha. It doesn’t mean when WE are not sure about a bracha! If we aren’t sure what bracha to make, we need to go learn the halachos or ask someone who did! Only where the Chachomim weren’t sure about a bracha do we follow this rule.
See Birchos Hanehenin, perek Alef, se’if Gimmel and 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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At the end of his sefer, the Navi Amos tells us some beautiful nevuos about the Geulah!
In the last posuk of the sefer Amos, the Navi tells us that when Moshiach comes, it will be a Geulah that lasts FOREVER. There will never be another Golus!
Hashem promises:
וּנְטַעְתִּים עַל אַדְמָתָם וְלֹא יִנָּתְשׁוּ עוֹד מֵעַל אַדְמָתָם אֲשֶׁר נָתַתִּי לָהֶם אָמַר ה׳ אֱלֹקֶיךָ
Unetatim Al Admasam — I will “plant” the Yidden like a tree which doesn’t move, on their land.
Velo Yinaseshu Od — And they won’t be uprooted anymore
Me’al Admasam Asher Nasati Lahem — From their land which I gave them (meaning that they won’t ever be sent into Golus again)!
Amar Hashem Elokecha — So says Hashem Your Aibershter!
See Amos perek Tes posuk Tes-Vov
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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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