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CHUMASH
Parshas Beshalach - Chamishi with Rashi
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After Kriyas Yam Suf, the Yidden started to travel in the Midbar.
The Yidden came to a place called Eilim. There they found twelve springs of water, and 70 date trees. They camped there near the water. Rashi tells us that Hashem put the springs of water there to hint to the twelve Shevatim, and the 70 date trees were there in connection with the 70 Zekeinim.
One of the things the Rebbe teaches us is to find lessons for that day from the daily shiurim in Chumash. Here we see that Behashgacha Protis, on Yud-Alef Shevat, the first full day of the Rebbe’s nesius, exactly 70 years later, Hashem put in the Chumash about the 70 date trees! We can get a chizuk from this for our hachlatos in honor of Yud Shevat Shivim Shana!
One month after they got out of Mitzrayim, the Yidden ran out of matzah. They complained to Moshe and Aharon that they had no food — instead of trusting in Hashem or asking nicely.
Even though Hashem wasn’t happy with how the Yidden asked, He told Moshe that He will send mahn for the Yidden to eat! It will fall down from Shomayim every day, except on Shabbos. On Friday they will have to take a DOUBLE portion of mahn, so they will have enough for Friday AND Shabbos.
Moshe also told the Yidden that Hashem didn’t like the Yidden’s complaining. He told them that soon Hashem wants to talk to them about it! All of the Yidden gathered together, and they saw how Hashem was ready to speak to Moshe from inside a cloud.
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Today’s Tehillim is Samach through Samach-Hey.
In Kapitel Samech-Alef, Dovid Hamelech asks Hashem for something very special: “Yomim Al Yemei Melech Tosif” — “Hashem should add days to the days of the king.” Dovid Hamelech was asking Hashem that he should live for a long time.
The Zohar says that when a person is born, Hashem decides how long they will live. If they have a special zechus, Hashem will make them live even longer! This is what Dovid Hamelech was asking from Hashem — that he should have the zechus to live extra-long.
Since EVERY Yid is like a king (“Kol Yisroel Bnei Melochim Heim”), Dovid Hamelech was also asking for ALL Yidden to live a long time!
See Tehillim with Pirush Tehilas Menachem, kapitel Samach-Alef
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Chof-Gimmel
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The Alter Rebbe told us before that every Yid gets a hidden koach from the Avos called Ahava Mesuteres. The Alter Rebbe is now explaining to us how we can wake up this Ahava Mesuteres to help us do Torah and mitzvos even when it may be very difficult.
To understand this, we had to learn about Achdus Hashem. What is Achdus Hashem? Achdus Hashem is the way Hashem sees the world — that it is really ONE with Hashem, and it is not separate at all! We used the mashal of the way our words, before we say them, are just part of our mind.
But the world is a place where Hashem is hidden. So the way the world is set up, it makes it LOOK like it is separate from Hashem!
In the world, though, there is something that connects us with Hashem and with the way HASHEM sees things, Achdus Hashem.
That is Torah and mitzvos, which are Hashem’s Ratzon, what Hashem wants. The whole world was created for Yidden to be able to learn Torah and do mitzvos in it! So when we learn Torah and do the mitzvos, we are connecting with Achdus Hashem, and are connected with the world the way Hashem sees it — that it is not separate from Hashem at all!
The Avos lived their WHOLE lives this way! They didn’t do ANYTHING except for the Ratzon of Hashem! They were ALWAYS connected to Achdus Hashem. We also need to try to be like the Avos, and connect to Hashem by doing Hashem’s Ratzon every time we can!
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Every day, we start our day with Modeh Ani. We say this even before washing our hands — when they are still tomei!
Nothing in the world can make the Modeh Ani of a Yid tomei — there is a part of our neshama that is connected to Hashem no matter what we do.
There is a sicha which was printed as its own sefer, called Kuntres Inyana Shel Toras Hachassidus. In this sicha, the Rebbe explains how Chassidus reveals the pnimius of every part of Torah, and what it accomplishes in a Yid and in the world. In this sicha, the Rebbe uses this Hayom Yom as an example to show what Chassidus is!
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Today’s mitzvah is to give Maaser from our animals!
The tenth one from our animals is special — it is a present for Hashem! We are supposed to take it to Yerushalayim, and bring it for a Korban. Then we eat the meat of the Korban in Yerushalayim.
Really, we should keep this mitzvah nowadays, even without a Beis Hamikdash. We can still set aside our tenth animal and not eat it unless it gets a mum, like we learned before with a bechor. But the Chachomim were afraid that people wouldn’t wait until it got a mum, and would shecht and eat the animal even without a mum, while it still should be a korban. It is a very serious aveira (chiyuv Kareis), to shecht a korban outside the Beis Hamikdash (Shechitas Kodshim Bachutz). So the Chachomim said that we should not keep the mitzvah of maaser at all nowadays. We will have to wait to keep this mitzvah until the Beis Hamikdash is rebuilt.
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Bechukosai: וְכָל מַעְשַׂר בָּקָר וָצֹאן כֹּל אֲשֶׁר יַעֲבֹר תַּחַת הַשָּׁבֶט הָעֲשִׂירִי יִהְיֶה קֹּדֶשׁ לַה׳
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more about the Bechor, and about giving Maaser from our animals!
Perek Hey: What happens when we’re not sure which animal is really the bechor? The Rambam tells us what the halacha is in different kinds of cases!
Perek Vov: In this perek, we learn about giving Maaser from our animals.
Perek Zayin: Here’s how we figure out which animal is really maaser: We need to put all the baby sheep into one place, and put the mother sheep outside. We let them go out to their mother, one animal at a time, and count the tenth one. Every tenth one we mark with paint, and that one will be a present for Hashem.
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This perek teaches us about who can be a shomer. It has to be a person who is allowed to do business according to Torah, because the halachos of shomer and regular business share many of the same halachos.
The Rambam tells us that just like with buying something, there has to be a kinyan, to show that the shomer started taking care of it.
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Yesterday was the very special day of Yud Shevat, which is the day of the histalkus of the Frierdiker Rebbe, and the beginning of the Rebbe’s nesius. But today is ALSO a very special day!
On Yud Shevat, Tof-Shin-Yud, the Frierdiker Rebbe was nistalek, and the Rebbe’s nesius began. So part of the day was in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s nesius, and the rest of the day was part of the Rebbe’s nesius. Yud-Alef Shevat was the first FULL day of the Rebbe’s nesius!
Every single generation has it’s own special avodah. For example, in the times of the Alter Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe expected Chassidim to have a lot of iskafya, to work on their midos to have a love for serving Hashem instead of a love for Gashmius. In the times of the Mitteler Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe expected Chassidim to learn a lot of deep Chassidus, so much that they should end up talking about it in even regular conversations. In the times of the Frierdiker Rebbe, Chassidim had to have Mesiras Nefesh, to even give up their lives to spread Yiddishkeit and teach children Torah! (Of course we need to do all of these things, but there is one thing that is the most important in each time, and everything else becomes a part of it.)
Today, Yud-Alef Shevat, is the first day when the WHOLE DAY is the avodah of OUR dor, the avodah the Rebbe teaches us! And what is this avodah? Each one of us has the Shlichus to spread Yiddishkeit and Chassidus to ourselves and to everyone we can possibly reach, with Ahavas Yisroel, and to get ready for the Geulah!
We need to learn the Rebbe’s sichos, maamarim, and letters, and think about what the Rebbe is teaching us in them. This way, we will be able to follow in the Rebbe’s path and do our shlichus properly!
A few months after the Rebbe accepted the Nesius, before Yud-Alef Nisan, the Rebbe said that he would go to the Ohel. Anybody that is serious about dedicating themselves to the Shlichus that the Rebbe will give them should write their names on a paper, and the Rebbe will bring it to the Ohel. They won’t have to give up their lives (chas veshalom) for it, but it is a very serious thing.
Today, on Yud-Alef Shevat, especially this year when we are celebrating 70 years of the Rebbe’s nesius, we strengthen ourselves to continue doing the Shlichus of the Rebbe, and to add in it, with all of our kochos.
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There are some Chassidim who say that davening with avodah isn’t so important nowadays. They say that the Rebbe didn’t write many letters about davening, and the Rebbe spoke about mivtzoyim at farbrengens — not about Tefillah! That proves that it isn’t something we need to do nowadays, because otherwise the Rebbe would have talked about it more!
The Rebbe says that this is a foolish thought! If you look at the Igros of the Frierdiker Rebbe and the Rebbe Rashab, and learn their sichos, you will see that they already wrote about it and farbrenged about it many times! So where is the excuse not to daven properly?!
From sicha of Parshas Ki Sisa, 5740; see se’ifim 21 and 27
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We are learning some of the halachos about the kos we use to make Kiddush. This kos is a Kos Shel Bracha, and the halachos are the same for any other Kos Shel Bracha, like the kos we use to make Havdalah with or bentch on.
Here are two more things we need to have for the kos of Kiddush:
1) The kos needs to be Shalem, complete. It shouldn’t be broken or cracked, even if it can still hold a revi’is of wine or grape juice inside. (If there is nothing else to make Kiddush with, we can use it as long as it holds enough.)
2) The wine shouldn’t be pogum. Wine becomes pogum if someone drinks from the container it is in. So if someone drank from the cup or straight from the wine bottle, we should add some other wine so it won’t be pogum anymore. (If we don’t have any other wine, it is okay to add a little bit of water to make it not pogum anymore. But we need to be careful not to add too much water, because then it might not be counted as wine anymore!) Only then, after the wine isn’t pogum anymore, should we use it for Kiddush.
See Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch siman Reish-Ayin-Alef se’if Yud-Ches, siman kuf-Pey-Gimmel se’if Daled, siman Kuf-Pey-Beis se’if Daled to Vov
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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 the Rambam there is a halacha that says, “At that time all of the Yidden will be great Chachomim, and they will know hidden things, and understand the knowledge of Hashem as much as a person can.”
What are the hidden things the Rambam is talking about? This must be Pnimius HaTorah, which helps us understand Elokus, the knowledge of Hashem!
The Rambam says that when Moshiach comes, everyone will be busy with this.
That means that every Yid will be a chossid, since every Yid will be learning Pnimius HaTorah — Chassidus, which is what makes someone into a chossid!
So the Rambam is saying that the knowledge of Chassidus is what everyone will be busy with when Moshiach comes!
This also helps us understand why the Rambam says that there is only ONE thing that will be completely different when Moshiach comes: That there will be no Shibud Malchios, no nations ruling over us. Even though the Rambam also says that when Moshiach comes we will all be Chachomim, the Rambam doesn’t say that will be a difference! Even though EVERYONE will do it then, it is not something different and new — learning Chassidus is something we start already now! Only Shibud Malchios, that the whole world will follow Hashem’s rules and the nations will not rule over the Yidden, will be something completely new.
See Sicha of Zos Chanukah 5746
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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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