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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 asked the Yidden to build a Mishkan.
Hashem wanted 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!
The Yidden should make the Mishkan the way Hashem said, 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!
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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!
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Chof-Hey
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Today we learn the Yetzer Hara’s trick that keeps us from doing mitzvos that are hard, and how we can win over it!
The Yetzer Hara tries to keep a person from being excited to do a mitzvah. He tells the person, to go outside now in the cold to do a favor for your mother might make you sick! Or, you might end up losing money if you give a lot of tzedakah. So it’s not worth doing the mitzvah — it will make you sick and hurt your parnasa.
Even though we DO need to take care of our health and our money, this is a Yetzer Hara’s trick! Really, Hashem will help us if we’re doing what He wants. He will give us brachos, and not the opposite, if we do something hard for Hashem.
So what do we say to fight against the Yetzer Hara?
“You foolish Yetzer Hara! If I had to, I would give up my whole life for Hashem! I would do the same as many Yidden throughout the generations who gave up their lives to stay connected with Hashem! I would be HAPPY to give my life up for Hashem, with love!
“And now, I have a chance to be connected to Hashem FOREVER by doing a mitzvah!
“Even if you were right that it would hurt my health, which you’re not, I STILL am ready to pay any price to be connected to Hashem!”
So of course, if it’s just a little hard, we won’t listen to the Yetzer Hara’s silly ideas, and will do whatever Hashem wants! We will use this special chance to be connected to Hashem by going and doing a mitzvah even outside in the cold.
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The Baal Shem Tov used a posuk (from Parshas Mishpatim) to teach us an important lesson:
“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 don’t want to help, you HAVE TO help anyway.
The Baal Shem Tov explains that a person’s body is also like a donkey. (The word “chamor”, donkey, is like the word “chomer,” gashmius.)
A person might feel that he doesn’t like his “donkey,” his body — since the gashmius doesn’t help his neshama which always wants to be connected to Hashem!
When a person sees that the body is too lazy to do what Hashem wants (which would make the body more ruchnius’dik), he might decide that he doesn’t want to help the body anymore. Instead, he might want to fast and not take care of his body, so that it won’t get in the way of doing what the neshama wants.
But, the Baal Shem Tov teaches, you shouldn’t do this to the body — you should try to make it more ruchnius’dik, but not by hurting it. Use it to help you do mitzvos!
Before the times of the Baal Shem Tov, one of the ways to train the body to do the things the neshama wants, 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.
Chassidus taught something new: 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.
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There are five mitzvos in today's shiur:
1) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #74) The first mitzvah is that a Yisroel (someone who is not a Kohen or a Levi) is not allowed to work in the Beis HaMikdash. (The details of the mitzvah are explained in the second perek of today's Rambam.)
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Korach: וְזָר לֹא יִקְרַב אֲלֵיכֶם
The details of the mitzvah are explained in Mesechta Yoma and the last perek of Mesechta Zevachim.
The next four mitzvos are about korbanos that can’t be brought, and are explained in the new set of halachos that we are starting today, called Hilchos Isurei Mizbeiach. We learn all of these mitzvos from pesukim in Parshas Emor.
1) (Mitzvas Asei #61) This is a mitzvah of something that we need to do — a Mitzvos Asei — to only bring animals that are perfect, without a mum.
The words the Torah uses to teach us this mitzvah are: תָּמִים יִהְיֶה לְרָצוֹן
The details are in Perek Ches of Mesechta Menachos.
2) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #91) This is the Lo Saasei of that mitzvah — not to SET ASIDE an animal with a mum as a korban.
We learn this mitzvah from the words of the posuk: כֹּל אֲשֶׁר בּוֹ מוּם לֹא תַקְרִיבוּ
3) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #92) Then another Lo Saasei — not to SHECHT an animal with a mum as a korban.
We learn this mitzvah from the words: לֹא תַקְרִיבוּ אֵלֶּה לַה׳
4) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #93) And finally the last Lo Saasei — not to SPRINKLE THE BLOOD of an animal that has a mum on the Mizbeiach.
This mitzvah comes from the posuk that says: לֹא תַקְרִיבוּ לַה׳
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RAMBAM
Hilchos Biyas HaMikdash - Isurei Mizbeiach
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Today we finish the halachos of Bias Hamikdash — who is allowed to come into the Beis Hamikdash and who can do Avoda. We also begin the next set of halachos, Isurei Mizbeiach, that talk about which korbanos we are not allowed to bring.
Perek Ches: All together, there are 140 kinds of mum which a kohen might have which would make it asur for him to work in the Beis Hamikdash. The Rambam goes through the rest of the kinds of mum.
One thing we can learn from this is how we can thank Hashem for the health He gives us in so many things we usually don’t even notice!
Perek Tes: Of course, only kohanim are allowed to do the Avodah in the Beis Hamikdash! This perek explains the halachos of what happens if a Yisroel does avodah in the Beis Hamikdash. The Rambam also gives a summary of all the people we said in this set of halachos who are not allowed to do avodah.
Perek Alef: In Hilchos Isurei Mizbeiach, we learn that animals that have a mum can’t be used as a korban. The Rambam teaches us what to do if someone promised an animal with a mum as a Korban. We learn that even an animal that a Goy donates can’t have a mum! (We know this from the story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza!)
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In this perek we learn how to make sure that the fire on the Mizbeiach burns ALL the time!
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The Frierdiker Rebbe told over the following story: (This story was also printed in the introduction to a sefer called Pokeiach Ivrim, a sefer writtten 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 was better to be a Baal Agolah, a wagon driver, than to become a Rav!
At first, he didn’t want to stop his learning and go do that kind of work. But when he was offered a job as a Rav, he realized that he had 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.
Years later, he drove a certain Yid who had stopped keeping mitzvos. That Yid ended up learning from the chossid, and became a Baal Teshuvah!
Later, this chossid was told he could stop being a Baal Agolah, and that he should go be a mashpia.
We see from here that all the years he 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
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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 midos. All we have is Emunah, which we feel in our heart because we’re Yidden. We express 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. They said that if we say it three times a day, we are zoche to Olam Haba! Ashrei also has a very important posuk, “Poseiach Es Yodecha,” which teaches that Hashem gives every creation what it needs.
Most of the other paragraphs are there because of Ashrei and the bracha of Yishtabach.
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.
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!
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What bracha do you make on cholent?
Of course, we’re not talking about what you do in the middle of a seudah where you washed your hands and ate challah, because then we don’t have to make a separate bracha. But what about during a kiddush in shul?
Cholent can have potatoes and beans which are Ho’adamah, it can have meat which is Shehakol, and it might have kishke or barley which is Mezonos. So which bracha do we make?
If you can’t tell which pieces are which, we make only one bracha. If there is Mezonos in the cholent, we make a Mezonos on the whole cholent. If not, we make the bracha on whichever there is more of — Shehakol if there is more meat, and Ho’adamah if there are more vegetables.
But if you can tell the pieces of the cholent apart, then what bracha do you make?
It depends! There are two ways to understand the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch about this. So some Rabbonim pasken that you should still only make one bracha on the whole cholent, the same way as you do for cholent that has pieces you can’t tell apart, since they were cooked together. But others pasken that you should make a bracha on each kind of piece separately, since you can tell which is which.
What does your Rav say?
See Birchos Hanehenin for Children (Pansaim) chapter 8
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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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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 explains on these pesukim.
By learning more about the Mishkan (which is the basis for the Beis Hamikdash which was later built) it will make Hashem want to build the Beis Hamikdash much faster!
One of the things that the Gemara teaches us when talking about the Mishkan is how important it is for Hashem that Yidden do work, Melacha. It’s not enough just to learn and daven! We see this from the posuk, “Ve’asu Li Mikdash, VeShachanti Besocham” — Build Hashem a Mikdash, and only THEN Hashem’s Shechinah will rest among the Yidden. The WORK the Yidden did is what made Hashem’s Shechinah be with the Yidden!
Whatever job Hashem gave us is OUR work (for kids that could be running around outside or doing homework, for Mommy it might be cooking supper and making sure the house is clean, and for Tatties that could be going out for his job to make money). When we do our jobs, we will make all of the Gashmiyus things holy and Hashem will want to be with us!
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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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