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לעילוי נשמת הרה״ח הרה״ת הר׳ משה פינחס בן הר׳ אברהם מרדכי הכהן כ״ץ
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CHUMASH

Parshas Vayishlach - Shlishi with Rashi

Yaakov was hurt fighting with the malach, so Hashem makes the sun rise early to help him feel better. Yaakov meets Eisav, who is so impressed with the kavod Yaakov shows him that he changes his mind and doesn’t fight! He hugs and kisses his brother instead.

Yaakov names the place where he fought with a malach: Yaakov called that place by the Yabok River by a name “Peniel”, because it means “Hashem’s face,” since he saw Hashem face to face (through a malach) and stayed alive!

Yaakov’s hip: Hashem made the sun come up early so it would help Yaakov’s hip feel better. (He didn’t have a refuah sheleima, though, for another year and a half.) That’s why we don’t eat a certain part of an animal, called the “Gid HaNosheh (sciatic nerve)” — because that’s the part of Yaakov’s hip that Eisav’s malach moved out of place.

Yaakov sees Eisav coming: Now Yaakov looked up and saw Eisav coming, with 400 people! So he went and set up his family in a way that if Eisav attacked them, the shevatim and Imahos would be in the back.

Yaakov went ahead in case Eisav would start to fight. He bowed down seven times as he came closer.

Eisav changes his mind about fighting: Eisav was so impressed that Yaakov honored him so much that he changed his mind about fighting with him, and ran over to him to hug him and kiss him.

Then Eisav looked up and saw Yaakov’s wives and children. “Who are these people?” he asked.

Yaakov answered, “These are the wives and children Hashem gave to me with His chesed!”

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TEHILLIM

66 - 68

Today’s shiur Tehillim is kapitelach Samach-Vov, Samach-Zayin, and Samach-Ches.

In today’s Tehillim, we have a posuk that says “Boruch Hashem Yom Yom” — “blessed is Hashem, Who gives us so much chesed every day!”

Hillel Hazakein used to say that this posuk teaches us bitachon: If we find a fancy or special food, we don’t have to save it for Shabbos — we can use it today! Hashem gives us chesed every single day! Hashem will for sure give us new brachos tomorrow, with something else special for Shabbos.

The Maggid teaches us that this posuk tells us another reason we don’t have to save a special food only for Shabbos:

This posuk uses the word “Yom” (day) two times, “Yom Yom.” These two words are the two ways we serve Hashem every day! The first “yom” is the kedusha things, like doing mitzvos and learning Torah. The second “yom” is the regular things we do, like eating and sleeping and playing. Those things can and should also be used for Hashem!

A person might think that nice food can only be used on Shabbos, when eating is a mitzvah. But we learn from this posuk that “Boruch Hashem YOM YOM” — BOTH ways of serving Hashem are special! We can also use a nice food on a regular day in a way that will make Hashem happy.

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TANYA

Kuntres Acharon Siman Daled

In today’s Tanya, we finish this long pilpul to understand why doing a mitzvah or learning halachos is more special than just having kavana.

One of things that we learn is that malochim are called with the name of Hashem when they are doing a shlichus (a mission) for Hashem! When Torah is being learned in this world, WE become Hashem’s shluchim to bring Torah into the world — we are also called with the name of Hashem! So the halachos we learn have all of the koach of Hashem to make the world a holy place!

But there is a difference between neshamos and malochim: Malochim can come very close to Hashem, but only neshamos can bring the light of Hashem in the world!

Learning Torah in a way of pilpul (which we just did for the last few days) is a special present we got from Hashem when we got the second luchos! With just the first luchos, we would only be able to learn about the mitzvos. With the second luchos, Hashem gave us an opportunity to reach a much deeper part of Torah by working hard to try to understand something in Torah, in a way of pilpul!

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HAYOM YOM

Yud-Beis Kislev

The bracha that a Tatty says when his son has a Bar Mitzvah is called Baruch Shepetarani. We say it without Hashem’s name, and only say it when we read the Torah, but it doesn’t have to be only on Shabbos.

We learn from the Baal Shem Tov: If we hear someone saying something not nice about another person, we should feel very bad, even if we don’t know who they are talking about!

It could be that what they are saying IS true, and then it should bother us that the person they are talking about is not the way they should be.

Or it could be that what they are saying is NOT true, and then we should be very bothered to hear that a person would say something not true and not nice about someone else!

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SEFER HAMITZVOS

Shiur #156 - Mitzvas Lo Saasei #74, Asei #61, Lo Saasei #91, #92, #93

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

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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RAMBAM PEREK ECHOD

Hilchos Temidin U'Musafin - Perek Beis

We learn the halachos of how to make sure that the fire on the Mizbeiach burns ALL the time, and about the Terumas Hadeshen.

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INYANA D'YOMA

Yud-Beis Kislev

In Tof-Reish-Tzadik-Gimmel, on Yud-Beis Kislev (today!) something very special happened:

It was late at night, and the Frierdiker Rebbe had a dream. In the dream, his father, the Rebbe Rashab came to him and said, “Why are you feeling sad? It’s shining bright in your house at night!”

The Frierdiker Rebbe woke up, and saw the moon shining through his window. But he understood that that wasn’t what the Rebbe Rashab was talking about! So he got up and walked around the house to see what was making his house so bright.

When he came to the library, he saw the Rebbe sitting and learning.

The Frierdiker Rebbe later called the Rebbe and told him about this dream!

One of the lessons we can learn from this is that it’s not just enough to learn Torah, but we need to learn Torah in a way that it will light up the world! How do we do this? When we learn the Rebbe’s Torah and do our shlichus to teach other Yidden too, we can be sure that the Torah we learn will shine!

See Reshimos Choveres Samach-Tes

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TEFILLAH

Shema and Shemoneh Esrei

In some places, Chassidus says that the main part of davening is Kriyas Shema and the rest is an explanation of it.

But in other places, it says that the main part of davening is Shemoneh Esrei, and the rest of davening is just a hachana for it.

The Rebbe explains how they are BOTH true!

There are two parts of us that come to daven: Our Nefesh Habehamis, and our Nefesh Elokis. What we try to do during davening is to start to want what Hashem wants!

For our Nefesh Elokis, wanting Ruchnius is easy. But that’s not all Hashem wants us to do. Hashem wants us to use its kochos IN THE WORLD, with Gashmius! During davening, the Nefesh Elokis needs to want to use the Gashmius, like Hashem wants. So for the Nefesh Elokis, the main part of davening is Shemoneh Esrei, where we ask Hashem for all of the Gashmius’dike things we need to do to be able to fulfill our shlichus in the world.

For our Nefesh Habehamis, wanting Gashmius is easy. But that’s not all Hashem wants! It needs to want to become close to Hashem, too! So for the Nefesh Habehamis, the main part of davening is Shema. In Shema, we think about how there is nothing except for Hashem, that we love Hashem, and that we are ready to even have Mesiras Nefesh to do what Hashem wants from us.

So, for the Nefesh Habehamis (and the Guf), the main part of davening is Kriyas Shema. For the Nefesh Elokis (the neshama), the main part of the davening is Shemoneh Esrei.

Reshimos Kuf-Nun-Ches

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HALACHOS HATZRICHOS

Kavana in Davening

We should try to have kavana during the whole davening, but there are some parts of davening where we need to be extra careful to have kavana. Here are two of them:

- The first line of Shema
- The very first bracha in Shmoneh Esrei

It used to be that people would have to say Shemoneh Esrei AGAIN if they didn’t say it with kavana, but nowadays we don’t, because we might not have the right kavana then either...

What kavana should we have during the rest of davening? We should try to think of what the words mean. If we can’t think about the meaning of the words, we should at least think about things that make us feel humble and focused on how we are davening to the Aibershter.

We should also get used to having kavana at least in the end of each paragraph of Shmoneh Esrei (like “Baruch Ata Hashem Shomeia Tefillah”).

There are two special things about the end of the brachos:

1) There are 113 words in all of those brachos, and when Chana davened to Hashem to have a baby, she said 113 words!

2) The 113 words in the brachos also hint to the word “Leiv,” heart, because the word “Leiv” (heart) is said 113 times in the Torah. This reminds us to daven with our heart!

See Shulchan Aruch, Hilchos Tefillah, siman 98 and 101

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

Problems With Goyim

When the Rambam writes what will happen in the times of the Geulah, the Rambam writes that first Moshiach will fight the wars of Hashem and win; afterwards he will build the Beis Hamikdash; and then he will gather the Yidden — Kibbutz Galuyos.

We see that even before we have a Beis Hamikdash, we will already not have any problems with the goyim around us!

The truth is that this is possible even in Golus. The nations of the world can be afraid of the Yidden, and not want to bother us. The Medrash tells us how this can happen: K’SheHaKol Kol Yaakov BeBatei Knesios U’beBatei Midrashos, Ein Yedei Esav Sholtos. “When there is a voice of Yaakov learning and davening in the shuls and Yeshivos, then Eisav won’t be able to bother Yidden!”

Maamar Asara B’Teves 5738, Likutei Sichos vol. 20, p. 350

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