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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:
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 he wasn’t just being a judge, he was trying to share with them the halachos the way he heard them from Hashem. Since they are coming to hear what Hashem is saying, they should stand.
Yisro told Moshe that he didn’t think this was a good idea. Moshe wanted all of the Yidden to be as close to Hashem as he is, but really the Yidden deal more with the world. Yisro said that it’s better for people who also deal with the world to be the judges for the Yidden.
Moshe should choose certain kinds of people and set them up to be in charge of groups of Yidden.
Do you know what type of people Moshe Rabbeinu was looking for? A judge needs 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 a judge for every 10 Yidden, and for every group of 50, and 100, and 1,000! If someone asks them a very hard question that they can’t answer, THEN they should come to Moshe.
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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-Alef
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In Tanya now the Alter Rebbe is teaching us how to have Mesiras Nefesh to do whatever Hashem wants all the time! We do this by using the special Ahavas Hashem in our neshama, which is passed down from the Avos. This strong love we have for Hashem makes us never want to be separate from Hashem Chas Veshalom!
If we ALWAYS felt this strong connection to Hashem, we would never even think of doing an aveira! But Hashem wanted us to CHOOSE to do mitzvos, not just have it happen by itself. So Hashem made this ahava an Ahava Mesuteres, a HIDDEN kind of Ahava. We only feel it when we realize that what we are about to do will keep us connected to Hashem and Yiddishkeit, or chas veshalom the opposite. The rest of the time, Hashem lets the Yetzer Hara hide it so that we will have to choose.
But with Avodah, learning and practice, we can feel this Ahava much more often, and use it to help us always make the choice to do what Hashem wants! We need to realize that Hashem isn’t only there at times when a person needs to stop himself from doing a “big” aveira like Avodah Zarah, Hashem is there with EVERY little choice we make! The more we understand that, the more we will be able to feel our Ahava Mesuteres, and always choose to stay connected to Hashem.
To understand how Hashem is always with us even though the world seems to be something that exists on its own, the Alter Rebbe is helping us understand that the world is really nothing on its own, it is one with Hashem.
In today’s Tanya, the Alter Rebbe is teaching us more about the mashal we use to understand how Hashem makes the world: The Torah says that Hashem creates the world in a way of Dibur, speaking. This is a good mashal, because speaking is a way of showing what we feel, and through Hashem’s dibur, Hashem lets us see a world — which is created with the chayus of Hashem!
But in some ways, our talking is NOT a good mashal for Hashem’s talking. Once a PERSON say a word, it’s not part of him anymore. But for Hashem, nothing can ever become separate, because Hashem is everywhere.
Hashem “speaks” words to give chayus to the world. That chayus of Hashem is as much a part of Hashem as our thoughts are, before we even think them — while they’re still in the koach of our neshama!
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We don’t say Tachanun, because it’s Chamisha Asar Bishvat.
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 Zaidy, 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 we learn 5 mitzvos: One more about presents of the kohanim, and then four about Shemitah — the new set of halachos we are learning.
1) (Mitzvas Asei #82) If someone doesn’t want to give the kohen his firstborn donkey (Peter Chamor) then the donkey needs to be killed. (We learn about this mitzvah in today’s first perek of Rambam)
2) (Mitzvas Asei #135) We are not allowed to do farm work during Shemitah.
3) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #220) We can’t plant during Shemitah.
4) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #221) We can’t work on our trees during Shemitah.
5) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #222) We are not allowed to gather what grew in the field by itself during Shemitah. We can eat from it, but we can’t go gather it like we do during other years.
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RAMBAM
Hilchos Bikurim - Shemitah VeYovel
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Perek Yud-Beis: We learn about the mitzvah of Peter Chamor, redeeming a firstborn donkey. We aren’t allowed to just give the donkey to a kohen, we need to trade it for a sheep or for money, and give THAT to a kohen.
Now we start learning Hilchos Shemitah:
Perek Alef: We are not allowed to do any kind of work that helps things grow during Shemitah. We are allowed to do things to keep trees from dying, but not to help them grow better.
Perek Beis: We even need to be careful not to do things that LOOK like we are working in our fields during Shemitah.
Some kinds of garbage can help fields grow! Peels and seeds and eggshells turn into a kind of fertilizer called compost. We aren’t allowed to put those kinds of garbage into our fields during Shemitah. We are allowed to make a big pile of compost, though, since you can see that a big pile of compost won’t help your field unless you spread it around!
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If anything touches the blood of a Korban Chatas before the blood was sprinkled on the Mizbeiach, it needs to be washed. (This is the only kind of korban that we need to do this for!) Whatever pot we use to cook the meat of a Korban Chatas (the kind we eat) needs to be washed, or broken if it is made of clay.
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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: https://kidschitas.org/resources/articles/shiva-minim-poem)
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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 https://kidschitas.org/resources/articles/hoadamah-fruits-and-haeitz-berries
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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!
The Geulah is the same way. It takes a lot of hard work to do all of the mitzvos during Golus, but it is worth it for the delicious “Geulah fruit” we will get in the end!
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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