| |
|
CHUMASH
Parshas Terumah - Rishon with Rashi
|
|
Today we are starting a very exciting parsha — all about the Mishkan!
After the aveira of the Egel Hazahav (the Golden Calf, which we’ll learn about later in Chumash), Hashem gives the Yidden the mitzvah to build a Mishkan.
Hashem tells the Yidden to give the things needed to build a Mishkan:
- gold, silver, and copper
- certain colors of wool (blue, purple, and red)
- linen
- goat hair
- animal skins (ram skins dyed red, and tachash-skin)
- the wood Yaakov planted in Mitzrayim (Atzei Shitim)
- olive oil (for the Menorah, the Shemen Hamishcha — special oil used when starting to use something for kedusha — and for the ketores.)
- jewels called Shoham (for the Efod and the Choshen)
Then Hashem says, “Ve’asu Li Mikdash VeShachanti Besocham — they should make for Me a Mishkan and I will live in them!” The posuk doesn’t say “Veshachanti Besocho,” I will live in IT, it says “Veshachanti Besocham,” I will live in THEM!” Hashem doesn’t just want to live in the Mishkan, Hashem wants to live in every single Yid!
By all of the Yidden together building the Mishkan where Hashem’s Shechinah will rest, Hashem’s Shechinah will also be able to rest in every Yid!
The Yidden should make the Mishkan the way Hashem tells Moshe, and later they will make similar things for the Beis Hamikdash.
First Hashem tells Moshe Rabbeinu how to make the Aron:
The Aron should be made of wood, with a gold case inside and outside. It should have a “crown” around the top. There should be poles attached to the Aron with golden rings, in a way that the poles can never come out.
Inside of the Aron, you should put the Luchos!
|
| |
|
|
Today’s kapitelach of Tehillim are Kuf-Lamed-Hey through Kuf-Lamed-Tes.
One of today’s Kapitelach, Kapitel Kuf-Lamed-Vov (136), has 26 pesukim — just like the 26 generations from when Hashem created the world until when the Yidden got the Torah!
In this kapitel, we thank Hashem for all of the nissim that happened from the time Hashem made the world until Matan Torah! Every posuk finishes with the words “Ki Le’olam Chasdo” — that Hashem’s kindness is forever!
|
| |
|
TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Chof-Tes
|
|
In today’s Tanya, we start learning how to fix up the problem called Timtum Halev.
A beinoni can sometimes feel not interested in connecting his neshama with Hashem during davening. That’s called “timtum halev.” So even if he learns Chassidus and understands it well, it still doesn’t make him excited to connect with Hashem during davening.
The Alter Rebbe says that this is because the Yetzer Hara feels too big, and he gives us a special way to fix it.
We will understand how with a mashal: If there’s a piece of wood that is too big to burn in a bonfire, we can break it into smaller pieces, and then it will burn. The same thing is with the person’s Yetzer Hara. It can become very big, until it makes a person not interested in kedusha. So you have to “cut it into pieces” so that the light of the neshama will shine inside the Yid.
How do we “cut the Yetzer Hara into pieces”?
We need to think about things that will make ourselves feel humble.
One of those things is that we have a Nefesh Habehamis, which is just like a beheimah and is nothing special.
The only difference is that a beheimah thinks about hay, and we think about good food and beautiful houses…
Later in the perek, we will learn more things to think about to make ourselves feel humble, which will take away the gaavah of the Yetzer Hara. This will allow us to get excited about our connection with Hashem!
|
| |
|
|
Chassidus teaches us to serve Hashem with simcha, TOGETHER with the guf!
The Baal Shem Tov teaches us an important lesson in how to serve Hashem from a posuk in Parshas Mishpatim: “Ki Sireh Chamor Sona’acha Rovetz Tachas Masa’o, Vechadalta Mei’azov Lo, Azov Taazov Imo.”
In the posuk it says that if you see a donkey that belongs to someone you don’t like, and the bags it is carrying are falling, even though you might not want to help, you should help anyway.
The Baal Shem Tov explains that a person’s body is also called “chamor.” (The word “chamor”, donkey, is like the word “chomer,” gashmius, which is one way to describe the guf.)
The posuk is telling us that when we come to serve Hashem, we might look at our body, our chamor, and think that we don’t like it! This gashmius body doesn’t help our neshama, which wants to be close to Hashem!
When we see that the body is too lazy to do what Hashem wants, we might not want to help our body anymore! We might want to fast and not take care of our body, so that it won’t get in the way of doing what the neshama wants.
But, the Baal Shem Tov teaches, we shouldn’t do this to the body — we should try to make it more ruchnius’dik, but not by hurting it. Instead, we should help it understand that it good for it to serve Hashem!
Before the times of the Baal Shem Tov, one of the ways to train the body to serve Hashem was through “Sigufim,” doing things that were hard for the body. Yidden fasted, rolled in the snow, and traveled far away from home without telling anyone who they were, which were painful for the body. This way, they got used to ignoring what the body wanted, and could think only about the neshama.
Chassidus taught something different: That we need to serve Hashem with simcha, and that the guf also needs to be a part of it! Chassidus teaches us how the neshama can train the body to WANT to do the Ratzon of Hashem, through learning and thinking the teachings of Chassidus, so that the body will also understand that it is good for it to serve Hashem!
|
| |
|
|
Today’s mitzvah is the same one as yesterday:
(Mitzvas Asei #107) When a neshama leaves a body, the body becomes Tomei. Someone who touches or is in the same house as the body gets some of this Tumah too, called Tumas Meis. There are many halachos about how this tumah is passed on. Today’s mitzvah is to follow all of these halachos!
We also learn the first mitzvah about Parah Adumah:
2) (Mitzvas Asei #113) It is a mitzvah to prepare the Parah Adumah so its ashes can be used to make Yidden Tahor from Tumas Meis. There is a whole mesechta of Mishnayos that deals with the dinim of Parah Adumah, called Mesechta Parah.
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Chukas: וְהָיְתָה לַעֲדַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לְמִשְׁמֶרֶת
|
| |
|
RAMBAM
Hilchos Tumas Meis - Parah Adumah
|
|
In today's Rambam, we finish learning the halachos about Tumas Meis, Perakim Chof-Daled and Chof-Hey. There are many halachos that explain to us how tumah can spread in a house! We learn about a house that is split by a wall, and there is tumah in the house. Sometimes the whole house can become tomei, and sometimes just one part.
Then we start a new set of halachos — about the Parah Adumah! Many times the Rambam finishes a set of halachos with a lesson, but this time the Rambam goes right away from talking about Tumas Meis to talking about the Parah Adumah, which makes us tahor from Tumas Meis!
Perek Alef: The Rambam explains the words in the Torah that tell us to take a Parah Adumah. We learn from the posuk that it has to be a cow (not a baby cow), ALL red (without even 2 hairs that are a different color), and it can’t be used for ANYTHING else! If someone even just leaned on the cow, it can’t be used for a Parah Adumah.
|
| |
|
|
In Perek Vov, we learn about the special shevuah that a watchman has to give if something was broken or stolen when he was watching it. He needs to swear that he took care of it properly, that what he said happened to it really did (like “it fell apart by itself”), and that he didn’t use it — he was watching it, not borrowing it!
If someone doesn’t want to promise, but he’d rather pay back the owner, we usually let him. But if it was a special kind of thing that you can’t just buy a new one of, like a painting, we make him swear, because we are afraid maybe he just wanted it, and the owner wasn’t selling it.
|
| |
|
|
The Frierdiker Rebbe told over the following story: (This story was also printed in the introduction to a sefer called Pokeiach Ivrim, a sefer written by the Mitteler Rebbe for the Baal Teshuvah we will learn about in this story.)
One of the Alter Rebbe’s chassidim, a big chossid and lamdan, came to the Alter Rebbe for Yechidus. He was shocked to hear what the Alter Rebbe told him — that for his neshama, it is better that he be a Baal Agolah, a wagon driver, than to become a Rav!
At first, he didn’t think it was the time yet to stop his learning and go do that kind of work. But when he was offered a job as a Rav, he realized that now was the time to do what the Alter Rebbe told him.
He went and learned how to take care of horses, how to feed them and brush them and harness them to the wagon. Spending his day on taking care of his horses and driving people where they wanted to go took up his whole day. He wasn’t able to spend a long time on his davening and learning anymore — he had to daven quickly in the morning, and only review his learning by heart as he drove the wagon.
After a few years of doing this, he drove a certain Yid who had stopped keeping mitzvos. That Yid ended up learning from the chossid, and became a Baal Teshuvah!
Later, the chossid was told by the Mitteler Rebbe that he could stop being a Baal Agolah, and that now he should become a mashpia of a certain town.
The Rebbe said that we see from here that all the years the chossid was a Baal Agolah was for one reason: To be able to help a Yid to do teshuvah. It was worth it for him to stop doing his own avodah of davening and learning all the time, the way he was used to, just to help another Yid to become a Baal Teshuvah!
See sicha of Purim 5722, letter of the Frierdiker Rebbe in the introduction to Pokeiach Ivrim
|
| |
|
▼ Jump to Coloring Books & Downloads ▼
|
| |
|
|
In the first part of davening, our neshamos are still a bit asleep. They just came back to us, and they aren’t fully shining in our minds and our hearts. All we have is Emunah, which we feel in our heart because we’re Yidden. We bring out this Emunah when we say Modeh Ani and Hodu at the beginning of davening.
The second section of davening is Pesukei Dezimra, which is from Boruch She’amar until Yishtabach. The Chachomim put in this section so that we should praise Hashem and think about His greatness before asking Him for what we need in Shemoneh Esrei. They also wanted us to have happy thoughts to daven with!
The kapitel “Tehillah LeDovid” (Ashrei) is a kapitel full of praise to Hashem. The Chachomim chose this paragraph to be the main part of Pesukei Dezimra. Ashrei has a very important posuk, “Poseiach Es Yodecha,” which teaches that Hashem gives every creation what it needs.
We also say other kapitelach of Tehillim and sections of Tanach which speak about how Hashem runs the world with Hashgacha Protis.
Chassidus explains that Pesukei Dezimra starts to wake up our neshama! We started davening with a connection to Hashem only through emunah. By thinking about how Hashem creates everything, it wakes up our natural love for Hashem! That spreads our neshama further, into our midos (feelings).
We don’t need to think very deeply for this to happen. Even just the simple meaning of the words in Pesukei Dezimra, speaking about the greatness of Hashem in creation, are able to make us start feeling a love for Hashem, the Creator of everything!
|
| |
|
|
This Shabbos was Shabbos Mevorchim Adar, when we bentch the new month of Adar. We learned that we already start now with adding in simcha for the month of Adar!
The Rebbe tells us that parents should give money and other good things to their children in Chodesh Adar. “Mishenichnas Adar, Marbim Besimcha” — when Adar starts, the Torah tells us we need to add in things that bring us happiness!
Just like it is a mitzvah to give kids toys and treats on Yom Tov to make them happy, we need to make them happy in Chodesh Adar too! Especially fathers, who are sometimes strict, need to give their children special treats now to show how much he loves them.
See Sicha of Parshas Terumah, 5752
|
|
לעילוי נשמת הרה״ח ר׳ דניאל יצחק ע״ה בן ר׳ אפרים שי׳ מאסקאוויץ
שליח כ"ק אדמו"ר נשיא דורנו למדינת אילינוי
|
| |
|
|
One year (Shabbos Parshas Mishpatim 5749/1989), the Rebbe asked that when we learn about the Mishkan in Chumash (in Parshas Terumah, Tetzaveh and the beginning of Ki Sisa), in addition to learning Rashi, we should also learn what the Gemara and Torah Shebaal Peh explains on these pesukim.
By learning more about the Mishkan (which is the basis for the Beis Hamikdash which was later built) it will bring Hashem build the Beis Hamikdash Hashlishi much faster!
In today’s Chumash, we learn about the Aron.
Even though the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, the Aron was NOT destroyed!
When Shlomo Hamelech built the Beis Hamikdash, he knew the Beis Hamikdash would later be destroyed. He had tunnels built underground to hide the Aron in! Later, King Yoshiyahu moved the Aron there to keep it safe, under the Beis Hamikdash.
That way, the same Aron that was in the Mishkan was there during the time of the first and second Beis Hamikdash, and will be brought out again to be part of the third Beis Hamikdash!
This is similar to the Luz bone that every person has, one of the bones in a person that is impossible to destroy! Even after a person passes away, the Luz bone stays. From this bone, Hashem will rebuild the person at the time of Techiyas Hameisim! The Aron is like the Luz bone of the Beis Hamikdash — Hashem will rebuild the Beis Hamikdash around the Aron, which was never destroyed!
See Likutei Sichos chelek Chof-Alef, parshas Terumah
|
| |
|
|
|
לע"נ התינוק זאב ארי' ע"ה בן יבלט"א הרה"ח ר' שניאור זלמן שי' גליק
נפטר ב' מנחם אב ה'תשע"ג
|
| |
Give children around the world the gift of Kids Chitas!
KidsChitas.org/sponsor
|
| |
|
