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CHUMASH
Parshas Yisro - Sheini with Rashi
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The Torah is now telling us something that happens after Matan Torah, so that we will finish discussing everything that happened with Yisro:
After Matan Torah (which we will learn about later in the parsha), Yisro saw that Moshe was spending a long time answering people’s questions and judging people who had an argument. Moshe would be sitting, and everyone there would stand.
Yisro asked Moshe why everyone needed to stand — you don’t need to stand in front of a judge!
Moshe explained that they weren’t standing because of him, they were standing because they were coming to hear the words of Torah that he heard from Hashem.
Yisro told Moshe that he didn’t think it was a good idea for Moshe to teach all of the Yidden himself. He suggested that if Hashem agreed, Moshe should choose certain Yidden to be judges for groups of Yidden.
What type of people was Moshe Rabbeinu looking for? Some of the things a judge needs are to be wealthy, a Yerei Shomayim, trustworthy, and not too attached to their money. Look in Rashi to see why a judge needs to be this way!
There would be one judge for every group of 10 Yidden, also one for every group of 50, and 100, and 1,000! If someone asks them a very hard question that they can’t answer themselves, THEN they should come to Moshe.
The Rebbe explains that really, Moshe Rabbeinu COULD have judged the Yidden himself! Moshe thought it would be better that way, because they would learn Torah on his level! But Yisro told him that not everyone is on the level to learn Torah straight from Moshe. We will see in tomorrow’s Chumash that Hashem told Moshe to follow Yisro’s idea. One of the reasons Hashem wanted it this way was so that even after Moshe Rabbeinu passed away, there would already be a way for them to continue learning Torah, from Moshe Rabbeinu’s Talmidim. (See Likutei Sichos chelek Tes-Zayin p. 203)
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Today’s Tehillim is kapitelach Ayin-Zayin and Ayin-Ches.
In today’s Tehillim, we have a posuk: “Vayivchar BeDovid Avdo.” This posuk means that Hashem chose Dovid Hamelech from taking care of the sheep.
When Dovid Hamelech was taking care of the sheep, he noticed that not all of the sheep were getting food to eat! The big strong sheep would run very fast into the field and eat as much as they wanted. Then the older sheep and the baby sheep would come into the field, but there was no more soft grass left! The hard grass was hard for them to eat, so they were hungry.
So Dovid Hamelech built fences to keep the sheep in. He put the strong sheep behind one fence, the baby sheep behind another fence, and the older sheep behind the last fence.
When they went to a new field, Dovid Hamelech first let out the baby sheep. They ran into the field and ate the very soft grass that was easy for their baby teeth to chew. Then Dovid Hamelech let the older sheep come in. There was plenty of softer grass left for them, and they ate until they were full. Finally, Dovid Hamelech let the strong sheep come into the field. Even though most of the grass that was left was very hard and chewy, they were happy to eat it all up.
Hashem saw that Dovid Hamelech is careful to take care of every single sheep in the way they need, and knew that someone who takes good care of even a little sheep will also take care of every single Yid! That’s why Hashem chose Dovid to be the king of the Yidden.
Moshe Rabbeinu was also a shepherd who took care of every single sheep, and he took care of every single Yid very carefully in all of his years of leading the Yidden.
Hashem makes sure that every Nasi who leads the Yidden will take care of each of them! Our Rebbe, our Nasi, also takes care of every single Yid, making sure that each of us have what we need.
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Chof-Daled
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Yesterday, we learned that someone who does an aveira (chas veshalom) is separating himself from the kedusha of Hashem, and instead connects to the kelipah and Avodah Zarah in the world! In a way, he is even MORE separated from Hashem than they are!
If a Yid has a hidden love (Ahava Mesuteres) for Hashem, and would be ready to have Mesiras Nefesh to stay connected to Hashem, why would a person ever do an aveira?
The Alter Rebbe gives the answer to this in today’s Tanya.
Hashem gave permission to the Yetzer Hara to try and convince a Yid to do an aveira. This is called a “Ruach Shtus.” The Yetzer Hara tells the Yid that an aveira does NOT separate a Yid from Hashem.
Only when it comes to something VERY BIG, like a Yid giving up their Yiddishkeit, then the Ahava Mesuteres will come out and not let the person leave their Yiddishkeit.
But we need to understand that EVERY time we do something that is not the way Hashem wants it is just as serious! EVERY aveira separates us from Hashem just like Avodah Zarah does! When we understand that, the Yetzer Hara won’t be able to convince us that an aveira is not such a terrible thing.
The Gemara tells us that if the Yetzer Hara bothers us, we should shlep him to the Beis Medrash to learn Torah! Here we see that with the koach of learning Torah, like what the Alter Rebbe is teaching us, we will not let ourselves be convinced by the foolish thoughts of the Yetzer Hara.
There is a kuntres which the Rebbe Rashab wrote, called Kuntres Umaayan. In this kuntres, he brings what it says in Tanya, and also other foolish thoughts that the Yetzer Hara uses to try and convince us to do an aveira. For example, “Nobody will see,” or “Nothing will happen to me.” The Rebbe Rashab explains how to answer these thoughts and to understand why what the Yetzer Hara is telling us is so foolish!
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We don’t say Tachanun, because it’s Chamisha Asar Bishvat.
Today we will learn something about Likutei Torah, which we actually begin learning in Parshas Beshalach!
The Tzemach Tzedek wrote notes on the maamorim in the second half of Torah Ohr (called Likutei Torah). Some of the chassidim found out about them, and when they were about to print Likutei Torah, they asked the Tzemach Tzedek if they could put the notes into the sefer.
At first, the Tzemach Tzedek said no.
Then the Tzemach Tzedek had a dream that his zeideh, the Alter Rebbe, came to him and told him to print the notes. The Tzemach Tzedek didn’t tell anyone, but three of the Tzemach Tzedek’s sons had the same dream! When they told him, he agreed to print the notes in Likutei Torah.
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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Asei #71) is that a person who does certain aveiros needs to bring a ram as a Korban Asham, called an Asham Vadai. It is brought for four kinds of aveiros, whether they are done on purpose or by mistake:
- Someone who does Me’ilah (using something that is holy and belongs to the Mizbeiach or to the Beis Hamikdash)
- Someone who gets married to a Shifcha Charufa (a slave girl that is engaged to someone else, and was set free by one of her owners)
- Someone who steals money (Gezeilah) and then lies when he makes a promise about it in Beis Din
- Someone who has something that he needs to give back and then lies when he makes a promise about it in Beis Din (Shevuas Hapikadon)
The dinim of these mitzvos are explained in Mesechta Krisus.
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In today’s Rambam, we learn about more korbanos a person brings if they do an Aveira.
Perek Tes: We learn the halachos of the Asham Vadai brought for an aveira a person knows that he did (the details of today’s mitzvah).
Perek Yud: The Rambam teaches us about the Korban Oleh V’Yored that depends if a person is rich or poor.
Perek Yud-Alef: The aveira of coming into the Beis Hamikdash or eating korbanos when a person is Tamei has different halachos than any other aveira that we are learning in these perakim.
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Perek Vov has many halachos about what is counted as part of a rental. If you rent a house, the owner has to make sure it is a safe place to live. He has to fix the locks, make sure the roof is strong, and repair anything important that is broken.
We also learn how long you get to keep things you rented, if you didn’t say it clearly before. For example, if you rent a house for Shabbos, that means you can stay for at least two days!
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Today is Chamisha Asar Bishvat, the new year for trees!
Chassidus explains that every Yid is like a little Eretz Yisroel! Just like Eretz Yisroel has seven special fruits, we also have these seven special “fruits” inside us.
There are many pesukim and Maamorei Razal about these fruits, which are used in Chassidus to show how to use our “fruits” to do better in our Avodas Hashem. Here are two examples:
Gefen (grapes): The pesukim say that grapes, which make wine, make Hashem and people happy. Chassidus teaches us that our “gefen” in Avodas Hashem is the simcha we need to have! In everything that happens, we should look for the good parts, and that will make us happy.
Rimon (pomegranate): The Gemara says that every Yid is full of mitzvos like a pomegranate. In our Avodas Hashem, we should be trying to fill ourselves up with mitzvos, by always looking for more mitzvos to do! We can try to find ways to learn more Torah, do favors for other people, or say Tehillim!
(Here is a link to a poem that explains each of the fruits according to the Rebbe’s sicha of Chamisha Asar Bishvat, Tof-Shin-Nun-Beis.)
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TEFILLAH
The First Bracha of Shemoneh Esrei
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The first bracha of Shemoneh Esrei is different than all of the other brachos.
We are supposed to try to have kavana in every bracha in Shemoneh Esrei, but in the first bracha, it is even more important! If we don’t have kavana when we say this bracha, we are not yotzei davening Shemoneh Esrei at all! In fact, we aren’t supposed to even start davening Shemoneh Esrei until we think we will be able to have kavana when we say the first bracha!
Why is it SO important to have kavana? With all mitzvos, the main thing is to DO it!
But Shemoneh Esrei is different. Most mitzvos are things we do, and that’s why the main thing is actually doing the mitzvah. But the Chachomim set up the mitzvah of davening that we praise Hashem before we ask for our needs. Praising someone isn’t like shaking a lulav and esrog, or giving tzedakah, where we are doing a mitzvah even if we don’t have kavana. To praise someone you need to say special things about them, and mean it!
So to do this mitzvah, we need to have kavana and understand what we are saying, or else we aren’t really praising Hashem!
In fact, the Alter Rebbe says in Shulchan Aruch that even someone who doesn’t understand the rest of davening should learn what the first bracha of Shemoneh Esrei means, so he can daven it with kavana!
IY”H over the next few days we will learn more about the meaning of this bracha.
See Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch siman Kuf-Alef se’if alef, and footnote 7
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If you ask anyone what bracha we make on fruit, they will answer right away — Ha’eitz!
But there are some fruits that are NOT Ha’aeitz, like bananas. Why?
The halacha is that for something to be counted as a tree to make a bracha Ha’eitz, it has to have its branches all year, even in the winter when the fruits aren’t growing.
The banana tree doesn’t work that way though! Even though part of the trunk usually stays all year, the banana tree loses all of its branches in the winter, and they grow again in the spring. So according to the Alter Rebbe, the banana tree isn’t counted as a tree, and we make the bracha Ho’adamah.
To see pictures and learn more about these halachos, see this link.
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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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Planting an orchard is hard work. It starts by planting a seed, watering it, and waiting patiently for months and months. Once the tree starts growing, it needs careful trimming and watering, and protection from bugs and animals.
So why does a farmer spend so many years growing an orchard?
Because the fruit that will grow in the end is worth it!
This is one of the lessons of Chamisha Asar Bishvat. The minhag on this day is to eat delicious fruit. This reminds us how wonderful the fruit is, and we will know that it is worth all the effort to grow it!
Knowing about the fruit that comes at the end gives us encouragement for the avodah that a Yid does in the time of Golus.
The Geulah is the same way. It takes a lot of hard work to do all of the mitzvos during Golus, but eating the delicious fruit on Chamisha-Asar B’Shvat reminds us that it is worth it to do all of this difficult work for the delicious “Geulah fruit” which we will get in the end when Moshiach comes!
See sicha of Chamisha Asar Bishvat 5741
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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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