|
|
CHUMASH
Parshas Toldos - Sheini with Rashi
|
|
There was a hunger, but Yitzchak was not allowed to leave Eretz Yisroel. Instead Hashem told him to go to Gerar, which would later become part of Eretz Yisrael.
Yitzchak went to live in Gerar. Because he was afraid that the people there weren’t good people, he did what his father Avraham did, and told the people of Gerar that Rivkah was his sister.
Avimelech, king of Gerar, didn’t take Rivkah to his palace, so Yitzchak stopped worrying about it, and didn’t keep it such a secret that they were really married.
When Avimelech found out that they were married, he got very angry! “Why didn’t you tell me that you were married? I might have tried to marry her, and then we would be in trouble!” Avimelech warned everyone in Gerar not to bother Yitzchak or Rivkah.
Yitzchak planted grain, hoping to be able to give some to tzedakah. And even though it was a year of hunger without rain and Gerar wasn’t such a great place to plant things, Hashem made a neis and it grew 100 times as much as he expected! Then, when he counted the grain to give maaser, Hashem made another neis, and it grew to be 100 times more than that!
|
|
|
|
Today’s shiur Tehillim is the second half of kapitel Kuf-Yud-Tes.
Every neshama is sent down to the world with a special shlichus that it needs to do. We aren’t born just to do things that are easy for us — we need to find the things in ourselves that are NOT the way they should be, and fix them.
How do we know which things need to be fixed? There’s a posuk in today’s Tehillim, “MeiOivai Techakmeini Mitzvosecha, Ki Le’Olam Hi Li.” One of the ways to explain this posuk is, “my enemies help me get smarter about how to do Your mitzvos.”
How do we become smart to figure out which mitzvos are our job to work on? By thinking about the not-good midos that we have, our “enemies.” When we see what is hard for us, we will know that those things are what our neshama was put into the world to fix!
This used to be the way that Chassidim would get ready for Yechidus: They would think very hard about their midos to see what they need to work on, and then they would ask the Rebbe how to act so they will be able to serve Hashem properly and fix those things.
Here is a story that shows us more about this:
Many years ago, there was a bochur who went to the Rebbe for his first Yechidus.
Before going into Yechidus, he went to his mashpia and asked him what he should ask the Rebbe for in Yechidus. The mashpia told him to ask what is on his heart — what is important to him.
So on the note he gave to the Rebbe before his Yechidus, he wrote that he wants an eitzah what to do about bad midos and feelings of gaavah.
When the bochur came in for Yechidus, the Rebbe read his note and said: “What you write about not-good midos — you need to get rid of them. But about gaava — you should use it for kedusha, so that there should be Kinas Sofrim Tarbeh Chochma.” (That means when people see good things that other people do, it makes them want to do more good too, which brings more kedusha into the world!)
The Rebbe was telling him to use the feeling of gaavah to add in inyonim of Yiddishkeit, which will inspire others to do more, and it will bring more good into the world!
From the Yechidus of Rabbi Yitzchak Meir A”H Kagan, Chof-Gimmel Cheshvan Tof-Shin-Chof-Gimmel, as heard from him at a farbrengen
|
|
|
TANYA
Igeres Hakodesh Siman Lamed-Beis
|
|
Today we are finishing the fourth section of Tanya, Igeres Hakodesh!
In many letters in Igeres Hakodesh, the Alter Rebbe encouraged Chassidim to give even more tzedakah to Eretz Yisroel than they thought they could! In this letter, the Alter Rebbe thanks Chassidim for giving tzedakah on their own, without the Alter Rebbe needing to encourage them. The Alter Rebbe talks about how special tzedakah is in general, and especially when we give without someone else asking us to.
First, the Alter Rebbe tells us what tzedakah accomplishes in Ruchnius, and that we will see its reward when Moshiach comes:
When we give tzedakah in Golus, it’s like planting a seed in the ground. We can’t see the seed when it is underground, and we can’t see how it grows for a long time. But later, it starts to grow out of the ground and we can see a beautiful plant or flower!
Tzedakah is the same! At first we can’t see how great our tzedakah is, and we can’t see how much nachas it’s giving to Hashem. But later, in the time of Techiyas Hameisim, every Yid will be able to see what “grew” from the tzedakah we’ve done. We’ll see how it made Hashem comfortable in the world, and we’ll get to “harvest” our reward.
But in giving tzedakah there are two ways:
The first way is when someone else convinces us or inspires us to give.
The second way is when we get OURSELVES excited to give tzedakah, through our own Avodah.
For example, we can have kavana when we say Shema and think about how we are ready to have Mesiras Nefesh for Hashem! We then decide to give even the money we worked so hard for to tzedakah.
This is a very special way of giving tzedakah, and brings down Hashem’s kedusha and bracha in a much greater way!
|
|
|
|
A person might think that it’s a good midah to find all the things they are doing wrong and be upset about them. But that’s not true!
The true way in Avodas Hashem is that a person needs to know themselves very well. They should know what things they are doing well, and what they are missing.
And once we know what needs to be corrected, we can’t just sigh (krechtz) about the fact that we have things that need to be fixed, we actually have to DO whatever is needed to fix those things with avodah!
|
|
|
|
Today we learn 3 mitzvos about presents we give to the kohanim:
1) (Mitzvas Asei #133) Hafroshas Challah — whenever we make dough, we take a piece to give to the kohen. (We learn about this in today’s Rambam!)
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Shelach: רֵאשִׁית עֲרִסֹתֵכֶם חַלָּה תָּרִימוּ תְרוּמָה
The details are explained in Mesechta Challah and Mesechta Orlah.
2) (Mitzvas Asei #143) We need to give the kohen 3 parts of every kosher animal we shecht — the front part of the leg (zro’a), the jaw (lechayayim), and one of the stomachs (the Keivah).
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Shoftim: וְזֶה יִהְיֶה מִשְׁפַּט הַכֹּהֲנִים מֵאֵת הָעָם מֵאֵת זֹבְחֵי הַזֶּבַח אִם שׁוֹר אִם שֶׂה
The details are explained in Mesechta Chulin perek Yud.
3) (Mitzvas Asei #144) When we cut the hair of our sheep (shearing), we need to take the first part and give it to the kohen. This mitzvah is called Reishis Hageiz.
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Shoftim: וְרֵאשִׁית גֵּז צֹאנְךָ תִּתֶּן לוֹ
The details are explained in Mesechta Chulin perek Yud-Alef.
|
|
|
|
In today’s Rambam, we learn more halachos about Hafroshas Challah — today’s first mitzvah!
Perek Vov: We need to take challah from dough that will be baked for people to eat. Dough that will just be boiled (like spaghetti) we DON’T need to take challah from. We learn that there needs to be enough flour (about 3 pounds), and they need to be the kinds of flour that we use to make hamotzi bread (wheat, barley, oats, spelt, rye).
Perek Zayin: What happens if we put a few small batches of dough together? Do we need to take challah from them? As long as we wouldn’t mind if they got a little bit mixed with each other, we can count them as one big batch of dough, and take challah from them if together they are the size of the shiur challah.
Perek Ches: Do we need to separate challah from flour? Usually we don’t, but if the flour all gets stuck together, we do.
|
|
|
|
Today we learn EXACTLY how to bring a Korban Olah!
|
|
|
|
In the year Tof-Reish-Tzadik-Ches, the Frierdiker Rebbe set up a group for girls from Chassidishe families, called Achos Hatmimim. There was no Chassidishe school for them, and this group would give them a chance to be involved in Chassidishe things.
The Frierdiker Rebbe chose three Chassidim to guide Achos Hatmimim, and learn with them each week. He asked them to teach the girls Avodah’dike maamarim and certain perakim of Tanya. They should also show them which sichos they could learn on their own, and the girls should share what they learned at a farbrengen once a month.
Achos Hatmimim began in Riga, Latvia, and there was a group in America as well.
One of the girls in Achos Hatmimim that first year wrote a letter to the Frierdiker Rebbe, saying that she was feeling empty. The Frierdiker Rebbe wrote to her, like what we learn in today’s Hayom Yom, that a person needs to know the good things about themselves, their maalos, along with the not-good things, the chesronos. Every person is able to use their kochos to fix their chesronos and make them better!
How?
The Frierdiker Rebbe explained that the way to fix things in our avodah or our midos is by learning in a certain way. We need to learn the Chassidus that discusses the inyan we want to fix up, but not just once. It needs to be learned again and again and again, so it becomes more and more clear in our mind. First we should understand it well enough to speak about it, but then we also need to think deeply about it again and make it a part of the way we think. When something is this clear to us, it is called Machshava Shebemachshava. By learning this way, the inyonim we learn will become part of how we think, and will change our midos for the better!
See Igros Kodesh of the Frierdiker Rebbe, chelek daled, p. 468
|
|
|
▼ Jump to Coloring Books & Downloads ▼
|
|
|
|
It is written in the name of the Baal Shem Tov that a person should daven to Hashem to ask that his bitachon in Hashem should be strong.
Bitachon is very important, because when a Yid has proper bitachon, it is a keili to bring down only good things!
See Keser Shem Tov siman Kuf-Yud-Gimmel
|
|
|
|
Did you ever go on a long trip in a car?
If we drive at night, the Rebbe says that we shouldn’t just drive straight through. We should stop every hour for about 10 minutes.
See Mikdash Melech vol. 4 p. 490, Shulchan Menachem vol 1 p. 357
|
|
לעילוי נשמת הרה״ח ר׳ דניאל יצחק ע״ה בן ר׳ אפרים שי׳ מאסקאוויץ
שליח כ"ק אדמו"ר נשיא דורנו למדינת אילינוי
|
|
|
|
We just finished the section of Tanya called Igeres Hakodesh! We will soon start the last section of Tanya, called Kuntres Acharon.
In the year Tof-Shin-Chof-Vov, the siyum happened on Shabbos Parshas Chayei Sarah. The Rebbe spoke about it during the farbrengen on Shabbos:
The Rebbe explained something very special about Tzedakah. Hashem gives us a great sechar for the mitzvah of tzedakah, but we only get the full reward at the time of Techiyas Hameisim.
Still, we have the reward even now! This is hinted to in the words of the Alter Rebbe, “Ko’eis Eis Lekatzer,” “Now it is time to be in short.” The simple meaning is that the Alter Rebbe didn’t have time to write a lot in the letter, so he wrote in a short way.
The Rebbe tells us that these words are also speaking about the reward for tzedakah! Now, in Golus, we have the sechar — but it is “in short.” It is like a person who is given a wonderful treasure in a big chest. He is given the key, but is told not to open the chest yet.
This is like the reward for tzedakah. We have it nowadays, but we will only really see the tremendous reward we get for our tzedakah when Moshiach comes!
See farbrengen Shabbos Parshas Chayei Sarah, Tof-Shin-Chof-Vov
|
|
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
