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CHUMASH
Parshas Tzav - Sheini with Rashi
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In today’s Chumash Hashem tells Moshe Rabbeinu about a special korban which is brought by the Kohen Gadol two times every day (called Chavitei Kohen Gadol). We also learn how each kohen brings this korban when he starts to work in the Beis Hamikdash for the first time. This korban is made of flour and oil.
We also learn more about the Korban Chatas and the Korban Asham, which we started to learn about last week. One thing we learn is that the Korban Olah (which is a present for Hashem) and the Chatas (which is part of teshuvah for an aveira) are brought in the same place in the Mishkan, so nobody will know who did an aveira.
Certain parts of the korbanos need to be eaten on the day the korban is brought. It is asur to leave any leftovers.
Just like with kashrus, the pot that a korban is cooked in “holds on to” the taste of the meat! (So there could be a Fleishig, a Milchig, or a Korban’dik pot!) That flavor is also counted as “leftovers” from the korban and cannot be eaten. We need to kasher the pot so we can use it again.
At the end of today’s Chumash we see the parts of the korbanos that the kohen gets to keep, and which parts are burned on the Mizbeiach.
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Before many kapitelach of Tehillim, there are a few lines explaining what the kapitel is about. Before Kapitel Samach-Beis, it says that Dovid Hamelech is reminding the Yidden not to trust in money! Only Hashem takes care of Yidden, and trying to get rich just to have money is a waste.
This is the meaning of the words in this kapitel, “Ach Leilokim Domi Nafshi, Ki Mimenu Sikvasi.” “Only hope to Hashem, my neshama, because my hope only comes from Him.”
There is a beautiful niggun on this posuk (and the next one), which may have been composed by Chassidim of the Alter Rebbe. The Frierdiker Rebbe especially liked this niggun, and it was sung by many farbrengens. (You can hear the way it is sung by Nichoach, and at the Rebbe’s farbrengens.)
This niggun is like a bridge, taking us from one side to another. The first side is the way we usually feel about Gashmius. The second side is the way we realize that we only should trust in Hashem!
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Lamed-Vov
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The Alter Rebbe is teaching us about how important it is to have “Laasoso,” doing mitzvos with Gashmius. This is the main avodah of the beinoni. Even though a beinoni can’t take away his Yetzer Hara, he is working on the most important thing: bringing Moshiach! In this perek we are learning about what happens when Moshiach comes — and that we had a taste of these things during Matan Torah!
At Matan Torah the Yidden got a taste of how we’ll be able to see Hashem when Moshiach comes!
What happened during Matan Torah? All of the Yidden were standing together, and everyone was able to realize that Hashem was giving the Torah straight to them. Because they were getting Torah, where Hashem isn’t hidden at all, every Yid could feel that “Ain Od Milvado,” nothing exists aside for Hashem! It was a taste of how it will be when Moshiach comes!
But after the Yidden did the Cheit Ha’egel, the Yidden and the world lost the aidelkeit that they had at the time of Matan Torah. It became much harder to recognize the existence of Hashem in the world.
Very soon, when Moshiach comes, we’ll be able to see Hashem again the way we saw Him by Matan Torah! And it won’t only be for Yidden. Yidden will be able to see Elokus because of the koach of Torah, where Hashem is revealed. And through the Yidden, it will shine to the rest of the world, so that the nations of the world will also be able to recognize Hashem!
Since it already happened once, it gives us the koach to do what we need to do to make it happen again! But then, it was only for a short time. When Moshiach comes, it will stay this way forever!
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In every halacha, we have the Niglah of the halacha, what it means and how it is done.
Chassidus also shows us two deeper things about every halacha:
1) The meaning of the halacha in Ruchnius, for example what it means in the world of Atzilus.
2) The meaning of the halacha in our Avodah. Each halacha can teach us something in our Avodas Hashem, even if it’s not a mitzvah we can actually do!
After the Rebbe made the takana to learn Rambam, many times at farbrengens, the Rebbe would take a halacha from that day’s Rambam and explain the meaning of the halacha in Ruchnius, and the hora’ah we could take from it in our Avodas Hashem! Many of the explanations were later printed in a sefer called “Yein Malchus” — do you have it in your house? (It was recently reprinted.)
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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!
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Today’s Rambam is perakim Tes-Vov, Tes-Zayin, and Yud-Zayin. We are learning more about how someone can get Tumas Meis. We learned before about “Ohel” — that anything under the same roof as a Meis becomes tomei with Tumas Meis.
The Rambam says that if there is an open space that is at least as big as a tefach, like a window or door, the Tumah can spread and go into the next room or the next house. In today’s first perek, the Rambam explains what kind of materials can be used to close up the space so the tumah won’t spread.
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more about the halachos of the Korban Pesach.
In this perek the Rambam starts to tell us what to do if there is a problem with the korban, like if it gets lost or becomes Tomei.
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Even though the whole month of Adar is a happy month because of Purim, there is a special connection to Purim starting from today, Yom Yud-Alef! In the olden days, many people lived very far away from the city, and they would come to the city only on a market day. If Purim wasn’t on a market day, they wouldn’t be able to hear the Megillah on Purim! To make it easier for them to keep the mitzvos of Purim, the Chachomim said it was okay for them to hear the Megillah a few days early. In the Mishnah it says that today, Yom Yud-Alef, is the first day that a person could hear the Megillah as one of the mitzvos of Purim.
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When Mordechai and Esther heard about the gezeira of Haman, you would think that Mordechai, who was an important person in the king’s palace, and Esther who was the queen, would try to get Achashverosh to take away the gezeira right away!
Instead, the Megillah tells us that Mordechai went out into the streets crying, wearing sackcloth and ashes, so all the Yidden will do teshuvah.
The lesson we learn from this, the Rebbe says, is that if there is Chas Veshalom a gezeira on Yidden, a Yid realizes that it is from Hashem, and the FIRST thing they do is to do teshuvah and add in Torah and mitzvos.
Only afterwards do we do things in teva (nature) to take away the gezeira, like talking to lawyers or doctors or kings.
See the sichos of Purim for many years
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According to most opinions, the tefillah of Aleinu was written by Yehoshua bin Nun , after the Yidden captured the city of Yericho.
The war with Yericho wasn’t a regular war. It was full of incredible nisim!
The people in Yericho didn’t want to make peace with the Yidden, and they didn’t want to leave. They had thick walls around their city, and they closed the gates tightly so nobody could come in or go out.
Hashem promised Yehoshua that they would easily win over Yericho, and told him what to do:
Seven kohanim, each of them blowing a trumpet, went at the head of the line. Behind them went kohanim carrying the Aron from the Mishkan. At the end of the line came all of the soldiers of the Yidden, marching quietly.
On the first day, Yom Rishon, they marched around the city one time, and then came back to the camp of the Yidden.
Again on Yom Sheini, they marched once around Yericho.
They did the same thing each day until Shabbos. On Shabbos, the kohanim who were blowing their trumpets, the kohanim who were carrying the Aron, and the whole Yiddishe army marched around Yericho SEVEN times.
Yehoshua told the soldiers to all shout out loud when they went around the seventh time! They will soon see that Hashem is letting them capture Yericho. They should be careful not to take anything from the city, and they should save the life of Rachav, a woman who helped the Jewish spies (that’s another story!).
So they marched around Yericho a seventh time, with the kohanim blowing their trumpets and all of the soldiers shouting! In front of their eyes, the thick walls around the city collapsed into the ground!
The Yidden were easily able to go inside and capture the city of Yericho. After these nisim, Yehoshua wrote this tefillah.
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Every year, the Yidden would give a Machtzis Hashekel to help pay for things needed for the Beis Hamikdash. The Beis Din would start collecting it on Rosh Chodesh Adar.
Nowadays, even though we don’t have a Beis Hamikdash yet, we still give a Machtzis Hashekel to remember the one we hope to be giving soon!
We give it on Taanis Esther, right before Purim, because the Machatzis Hashekel is connected to Purim! The Medrash says that the Machatzis Hashekel the Yidden would give cancelled out the shekalim that Haman gave to Achashveirosh to bribe him to make the gezeira.
Since the Machatzis Hashekel was given for the Beis Hamikdash, it is best that ours should be used for a Mikdash Me’at, for a shul. Still, it can be given to any tzedakah.
The minhag is to give three half-coins of the place you live (like a half-dollar or half-euro). Usually they have these coins in shul, and people exchange them for their own money.
There is a minhag that everyone, not just adults, should give the Machatzis Hashekel. The Rebbe says that the best thing to do is for the parents to give money to the children, more than what we need for the Machatzis Hashekel. Then the children should give from their own money for the Machatzis Hashekel, but they should still have some left — so they will remember that we don’t lose out from doing a mitzvah!
If someone couldn’t give the Machatzis Hashekel before Purim, he can give it before the Megillah reading at night or during the day.
See Piskei Teshuvos and Halachos Uminhagei Chabad - Taanis Esther
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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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In today’s Tanya, we are learning how EVERYONE in the world will be able to recognize Hashem when Moshiach comes!
The Alter Rebbe brings five quotes that show us this. Can you find them all?
The first quote is from a posuk in Yeshaya, where the Navi says that all of the nations of the world will follow the light that shines from the Yidden — the light of Hashem that shines to the Yidden through Torah. As the posuk says, “Vehalchu Goyim Le’oreich,” “The nations will walk by your light!”
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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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