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CHUMASH

Parshas Acharei - Revi'i with Rashi

Now we learn about a new mitzvah!

The Yidden used to be able to bring korbanos wherever they wanted. They would just build a Mizbeiach for Hashem and they could bring a korban there! Now that they have this mitzvah, they can ONLY bring korbanos in the Mishkan or Beis Hamikdash.

This will keep the Yidden from doing Avodah Zarah, because all of their korbanos will be only brought in Hashem’s home.

 
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TEHILLIM

119 (second half)

Did you know that the longest Kapitel (Kuf-Yud-Tes) has 176 pesukim, the longest Parsha in Chumash (Naso) has 176 pesukim, and the longest Gemara (Bava Basra) has 176 dapim? This shows us how the whole Torah is all connected!

Before the beginning of each of the 14 seforim of the Rambam, there is a posuk connected to what we’ll learn in that sefer. Some of those pesukim come from Kapitel Kuf-Yud-Tes!

In the beginning of Sefer Zmanim, which talks about Shabbos and Yom Tov, the Rambam brings a posuk from today’s Tehillim! “Nochalti Eidvosecha Le’olam, Ki Seson Libi Heima” — “I have your mitzvos as a yerusha forever, because they are what brings me happiness!”

The Rebbe explains why this posuk is connected to Shabbos and Yom Tov:

There are many mitzvos, like having emunah in Hashem and davening, that we understand are with us forever, because we do those mitzvos all the time! We would understand if the Rambam used this posuk at the beginning of one of the first two sefarim, which talk about these kinds of mitzvos.

But Shabbos and Yom Tov mitzvos, like bentching licht or making Kiddush on Shabbos, are only mitzvos at a certain time. They aren’t with us all the time!

But the Rambam uses this posuk specifically here, to teach us something! The Rambam is teaching us that even though we only DO these mitzvos at certain times, because we love them, they really are with us all the time! If we love Shabbos and Yom Tov, and think about them every day, these mitzvos will be with us forever, not only on Shabbos and Yom Tov! This way, we will have ALL of the mitzvos with us all the time!

(At the end of Shmoneh Esrei everyone says a posuk that starts with the first and last letter of their name. If your name is Nechama or Nechemya, this could be your posuk, because it starts with a Nun and ends with a Hey!)

 
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TANYA

Likutei Amarim Perek Mem-Gimmel

In the past two perakim, we learned how to be good —
Yiras Shomayim helps us behave like we should!

When a Yid looks around at the world, he knows
He’s looking at Hashem, hiding in “clothes”!
We might be looking at mountains, or rivers wide
But we’re really looking at Hashem Who is hiding inside!

If we practice every day to think about this, then
Everything in the world will remind us about Hashem!
This way we’ll know Hashem is watching everything we do
And we’ll make sure to learn Torah right, and do all mitzvos too!

Today the Alter Rebbe tells us that if we are really trying
We can have even a BETTER kind of Yiras Shomayim!
We act in a way that we feel Hashem much more
And then we have Yirah Ila’ah — a better Yirah then before!

For our mitzvos to go up to Hashem, they need to have two “wings” — like a bird, to fly up. From Perek Mem-Alef until now, we talked about how a Yid has Yiras Shomayim. We talked about two kinds of Yiras Shomayim — the regular kind (Yirah Tata’ah) and a higher kind (Yirah Ila’ah). Until the end of Perek Nun, we are going to talk about many ways a person can LOVE Hashem!

Today we learn about two kinds of Ahavah.

A person can love Hashem with Ahavah Rabah, which is like fire! This means they love Hashem very much, like a fire that tries to get higher all the time! A person can’t feel this by himself, but Hashem can help him have this kind of Ahavas Hashem. But to have Ahava Rabbah, a person MUST first have Yiras Shomayim.

Or, a person can think about Hashem, so that instead of loving candy or cookies or pretty pictures, he ONLY loves Hashem! He thinks about how everything is from Hashem, and so he wants to love the chayus that everything comes from, instead of the Gashmius things themselves! This is called Ahavas Olam.

 
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HAYOM YOM

Chof-Vov Nisan

Today is the eleventh day of the Omer!

On Yom Kippur, the Kohen Gadol needs to change his clothes many times. Every time he puts on different clothes, he needs to go to the Mikvah first.

In our Avodas Hashem, we also need to “go to the Mikvah” when we “change our clothes!”

We learned in Tanya that the neshama has “clothes” (Levushim) — Machshava, Dibur, and Maaseh (what we think, what we say, and what we do).

Chassidim get special clothes for their neshama — thinking Chassidus (machshava), saying words of Chassidus (dibur), and making time before davening to think Chassidus (maaseh).

Before we use these special “clothes”, we need to “go to the mikvah”! How?

We “wash off” the things that we got used to doing, just like water washes us off. We fix up the things that we aren’t doing right yet, so that our neshama is ready to use our special Chassidus clothes! Then we can feel close to Hashem when we daven.

That’s what the Alter Rebbe had Mesiras Nefesh for — so Chassidim can daven in this special way.

 
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SEFER HAMITZVOS

Shiur #243 - Mitzvas Asei #240

Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Asei #240) is the mitzvah that if our animal eats from someone else’s field, it is our responsibility. We need to pay for the damage!

We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Mishpatim: כִּי יַבְעֶר אִישׁ שָׂדֶה אוֹ כֶרֶם וְגוֹ׳

The halachos are explained in Perek Beis and Perek Vov of Mesechta Bava Kama, and Perek Hey of Mesechta Gitin.

 
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RAMBAM

Hilchos Nizkei Mamon

In today’s Rambam, we learn more about the responsibility a person has for when his animal causes damage.

Perek Gimmel teaches us the halachos about when something is hurt or broken because of an animal eating — today’s mitzvah.

One halacha in this perek is that if someone’s animal ate food that another person brought there, the owner of the food is responsible if it made that animal sick!

The Rambam brings an example from a story in the Gemara: Once a woman came to make bread in her neighbor’s house, and the neighbor went away so he wouldn’t look at her when she was kneading and baking the dough, because of tznius. The neighbor’s goat ate some of the raw dough and died! The Beis Din made the woman pay for the goat, because she shouldn’t have let the goat eat the dough, and the neighbor wasn’t there to keep the goat away.

Perek Daled explains the halachos of a person’s responsibility for making sure his animal doesn’t do any damage. Sometimes we say that the person should have been more careful, so it is his responsibility to pay for any damage that the animal did. For example, if a person didn’t make sure the fence was strong, he needs to pay for anything his animal broke if it escaped. Another example is if a person left his animal outside in the sun. Then he is also responsible, even if the fence was VERY strong, because the animal wasn’t comfortable, so it tried extra hard to escape.

Perek Hey tells us about 10 conditions Yehoshua made when the Yidden came into Eretz Yisroel. Many of them are about when we are allowed to use other people’s fields without asking.

One rule is that Yidden are only allowed to raise dogs if they keep them tied up with a strong chain. That’s because Eretz Yisroel is special land for GROWING things, and a dog likes to break and ruin things!

 
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RAMBAM PEREK ECHOD

Hilchos Tumas Meis - Perek Beis

This perek teaches us what can give Tumas Meis.

 
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DARKEI HACHASSIDUS

Sefiras Haomer - Fixing Our Midos

This week in Sefiras Ha’omer, we are working on the midah of Gevurah.

One of the main differences between the first week of Chesed and this week of Gevurah is that chesed is the way we share of ourselves or what we have with others. Gevurah is the opposite — the way we hold back from something we want to say or do, and DON’T share with others.

One of the ways we show our Gevurah is by being stronger than our Yetzer Hara who might want us to say something, but we hold ourselves back.

Let’s say that a girl named Sarah sees a group of her friends. She wants to tell them that her Morah says her project is the best in the whole class!

But Sarah can “rechen mit a tzveiten,” think about how another person will feel.

She can stop and think: How would I feel if another girl told me that the Morah said it about HER project? I would feel bad that Morah didn’t like MY project more.

Then Sarah will use her Gevurah! She WON’T tell her friends about what her Morah said. She decides that she will tell her parents about it later, since it will make them proud. For now, she will ask her friends to all play with her instead — that way EVERYONE will feel good!

Can you think of a way that you can use the gevurah of your neshama?

 

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TEFILLAH

Shemoneh Esrei

The Chachomim put together Shemoneh Esrei as the main part of each tefillah. In Shemoneh Esrei, we ask Hashem for all of our needs.

Here is how the brachos of Shemoneh Esrei are organized:

- The first three and last three brachos of Shemoneh Esrei are praise and thanks TO Hashem.

- The middle 12 (now 13) brachos are what we ask FROM Hashem.

These middle brachos are split up into two sections as well:

- First, we ask for our personal needs. These are the first six of the middle brachos. We are asking Hashem for the things we need for ourselves, like sechel, health and parnasa, and a personal Geulah from the things that bother us from living the way a Yid should.

- Then, we ask for what we need for all Yidden together, in the other six middle brachos.

What do we need for all Yidden together? We ask Hashem to bring back the Yidden to the way things used to be, so that we can again fulfill all of the mitzvos properly in Eretz Yisroel. In these brachos, we ask Hashem to bring the Geulah for all the Yidden!

 
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HALACHOS HATZRICHOS

Muktza

The Chachomim made a takana called Muktza, which is things we aren’t allowed to move or carry, even inside of our own houses!

There are three reasons for this takana:

1) Shabbos is a day of rest. But if we can carry around whatever we want to in our homes, it won’t be very restful! We will be busy all day moving things around from one place to the next. So the Chachomim made the takana of muktza, so we won’t be able to be busy with all of these things, and will rest on Shabbos.

2) Muktza helps keep us from making a mistake and doing Hotza’ah on Shabbos, carrying outside of a Reshus Hayochid.

If we could just carry whatever we wanted all the time on Shabbos, even things we’re carrying for no reason, we would forget and carry things outside! That is the melacha of Hotza’ah, and the takana of muktza helps keep us from accidentally doing it.

3) The third reason why the Chachomim made the takana of muktza is to make sure that Shabbos feels different and Shabbos’dik for EVERY type of Yid.

Some Yidden don’t do much melacha during the week. If the only thing different on Shabbos was melacha, there wouldn’t be much different on Shabbos for them! It would feel just like a weekday.

The takana of muktza makes sure that Shabbos feels very different for EVERYBODY.

See the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, siman Shin-Ches, se’if Alef

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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GEULAH U'MOSHIACH

Judging By Smell

The Navi in Yeshaya (part of the Haftora of Acharon Shel Pesach) tells us about the qualities of Moshiach:

וַהֲרִיחוֹ בְּיִרְאַת ה׳ וְלֹא לְמַרְאֵה עֵינָיו יִשְׁפּוֹט וְלֹא לְמִשְׁמַע אָזְנָיו יוֹכִיחַ

Veharicho BeYiras HashemMoshiach will be so filled with Yiras Hashem

Velo Lemareh Einav Yishpot — That he will not need to judge based on what he sees

Velo Lemishma Aznav Yochiach — And he will not need to prove things based on what he hears.

The Chachomim, in Gemara Sanhedrin, connect the word “Veharicho” (and he will be filled) with the word “Reiach” (smell). They tell us that Moshiach will judge by “smell!” Usually a judge has to decide things based on what he sees and hears, but Moshiach will be so filled with the Chochma of Hashem that he will be able to judge by “smelling” what is right and what is wrong.

Fifty years after the Churban of the second Beis Hamikdash, a great man named Bar-Kochba, who fought for the Yidden against the Romans, came and said that he was Moshiach and would bring the Yidden back to Eretz Yisroel and rebuild the Beis Hamikdash. The Chachomim tested him based on this posuk: They checked to see if he could judge by “smell,” knowing who is right because of the Chochma of Hashem inside of him. When he couldn’t do this, the Chachomim knew that he was not really Moshiach.

But Moshiach will have this special koach to judge directly with the Chochma of Hashem!

 
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