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CHUMASH
Parshas Bo - Shishi with Rashi
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At exactly midnight, Hashem does Makas Bechoros, and the Mitzriyim rush the Yidden out of Mitzrayim!
At exactly midnight, Hashem killed all of the firstborns in Mitzrayim — the firstborn people (including the non-Jewish slaves) and the firstborn animals. The only firstborn who didn’t die was Paraoh, because Hashem wanted him to see the nissim of Kriyas Yam Suf so he will know and tell others that Hashem is in charge.
Paraoh woke up, and then went and woke up all of his servants. All of the Mitzriyim woke up too. Everyone saw that the firstborns had died! In every house, there was at least one person dead. The whole Mitzrayim was full of crying!
Paraoh ran out of the palace in the middle of the night to find Moshe and Aharon right away! He told them that all of the Yidden should leave Mitzrayim, with the adults, the children, and all of their animals! Some of the Yidden were afraid to go out into the desert, but the Mitzriyim told them to hurry and go!
The Yidden didn’t have time to bake bread in the morning, so they just took the raw dough they made and their leftover matzah and maror from the Korban Pesach. They carried this on their backs, because they wanted to carry a mitzvah! They asked the Mitzriyim for their gold and silver and clothes for the way, and put them on their donkeys. The women also took tambourines, because they were sure Hashem would make nissim, and they wanted to be ready to sing and dance!
Moshe made sure to take Yosef’s aron out of the Nilus, like Yosef was promised, and brought the aronos of the other Shevatim too. The Yidden also brought the trees Yaakov had planted, to use later for the Mishkan.
Hashem sent a malach to show the Yidden where to go. They all went from Raamses (near Goshen) to a place they would call “Sukos,” near the Yam Suf. Moshe counted the Yidden, and there were about 600,000 men older than 20! (A group of goyim, called the Erev Rav, who wanted to join the Yidden, came too.)
In Sukos, the Yidden baked the dough into matzah. This matzah lasted the Yidden for a month, until the mahn started to fall!
The Torah tells us that the Yidden were in Golus in Mitzrayim for 210 years, 430 years since the Bris Bein Habesarim, when Hashem told Avraham that his children would go into Golus. At exactly the end of this time, Hashem took the Yidden out! They didn’t stay in Golus for one minute longer than they needed to.
Forever, this night of Yetziyas Mitzrayim is called “Leil Shimurim” — a night Hashem protects us.
At the end of today’s Chumash, there are some more mitzvos about the Korban Pesach: Only Yidden who believe in Hashem can eat the Korban Pesach, or a slave who belongs to a Yid. But, they all need to have a bris. And, it is asur to break any of the bones of the korban.
All of the Yidden did what Hashem asked.
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Today’s Tehillim is kapitelach Chof-Tes through Lamed-Daled.
In the last perek of today’s Tehillim, Dovid Hamelech tells us “Sur Me’Ra, Va’asei Tov, Bakeish Shalom Verodfeihu” — “turn away from bad, and do good, and work hard to make shalom.”
The Baal Shem Tov explains that in every gashmius’dike thing in this world, there’s a part that’s good and a part which is bad. The Gashmius on its own (without being used for a holy purpose) is bad. The good is the chayus of Hashem which gives life to this gashmius’dike thing.
The posuk is telling us about the attitude a person should have to Gashmius. A person who is using Gashmius needs to be a “Sur Me’Ra” — someone who turns away from bad. He shouldn’t want the pleasure that he gets from the gashmius. Instead he should be “Asei Tov” — choose to want to be helped by the chayus of Hashem that is inside.
Then, when his attitude is correct, because he isn’t using the gashmius for selfish reasons, he should try to make shalom with the chayus of Hashem and the gashmius thing. How does he do that? By using the gashmius for the reasons Hashem wants it to be used — for doing mitzvos and for having koach to be able to serve Hashem!
Hayom Yom Hey Menachem Av, Sefer Hamaamarim of the Frierdiker Rebbe, Yiddish, page 75
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Yud-Zayin
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Yesterday, we learned that the avodah of a beinoni is to think about Hashem in order to make a hachlata in his heart that he will behave the way Hashem wants. That’s what the posuk means, “Ki Karov Eilecha Hadavar Me’od” — it’s possible for every Yid to serve Hashem and keep Torah and mitzvos with a feeling in the heart!
But, the Alter Rebbe says, a Rasha who did a lot of aveiros and let his Yetzer Hara be in control of him too much, can get a punishment — that he won’t be able to act like a beinoni! His mind won’t be able to have enough koach to get him to want to serve Hashem! He won’t be able to use the natural koach of Moach Shalit Al Halev to be in control of his behavior.
But that doesn’t mean that he will never be able to serve Hashem, chas veshalom! It just means that right now, he can’t serve Hashem so well. But when he does Teshuvah, and feels bad about what he did, and decides to act differently, Hashem will give him back this important koach!
In this week’s parsha, we see an example of this from Paraoh!
Paraoh had a lot of chutzpah to Hashem! He was supposed to let the Yidden out of Mitzrayim, but he kept on saying no.
Because of this chutzpah, Hashem didn’t make it easier for him to do the right thing. But in the end, Paraoh got Makos, which broke his chutzpah, and that helped him do Teshuvah. Not only did he send the Yidden out, but he was even able to teach about Hashem, when he later became a king in Ninveh.
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In today’s Hayom Yom, we learn how important it is to use our koach of speaking to always say words of Torah!
In a maamar that starts with the words “Bidvar Hashem Shomayim Naasu,” the Frierdiker Rebbe explains what it means that Hashem created the world with dibur. Then, the Frierdiker Rebbe says that the reason why Hashem created the world with dibur is so a Yid should use his dibur to strengthen the world that Hashem created with dibur!
In the second half of that maamar, the Frierdiker Rebbe mentions what happens to the neshama after it finishes its job in this world. If a person wasted his time and talked a lot of narishkeit, the neshama needs a special cleaning called Chibut Hakever and Kaf Hakela. Today’s Hayom Yom is the last few lines of that maamar:
A person needs to say many words of Torah, (like to say Tehillim or review Mishnayos) whenever and wherever he can! This way it will strengthen the world (because this is why Hashem created it), it will save him from needing Chibut Hakever and Kaf Hakela, and his neshama will be able to appreciate Elokus.
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Today we learn two mitzvos about Tzoraas:
1) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #308) There are certain simanim, signs, that can show that Tzoraas is tomei, like hair or healthy skin.
We are not allowed to cut off these signs, to make it look like we don’t have the simanim of tumah.
We learn this from a posuk in Parshas Ki Seitzei: הִשָּׁמֶר בְּנֶגַע הַצָּרַעַת
2) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #307) There is a kind of Tzoraas called a nesek, which is on the hair or beard.
Hair that grows in a nesek is a sign of tumah. We are not allowed to cut off the hair of a nesek.
We learn this from the posuk in Parshas Tazria: וְאֶת הַנֶּתֶק לֹא יְגַלֵּחַ
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In today’s Rambam, we learn about the simanim of tumah for Tzoraas.
Perek Beis: This perek teaches us the halachos about the siman of tumah called “Se’ar Lavan,” white hair in the patch of Tzoraas.
Perek Gimmel: This perek teaches us the halachos about the siman of tumah called “Michya,” which is healthy skin inside the area of Tzoraas. Usually this makes a person Tomei, unless it is at one of the tips of the body — like the tips of the fingers.
Perek Daled: This perek teaches us about the siman of tumah called “Pisyon,” when the patch of Tzoraas gets bigger.
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We learn the rest of the halachos of the korbanos everyone needed to bring when they went up to Yerushalayim for Yom Tov!
The Rambam explains the reason for today’s mitzvah not to forget about the Leviim when we come to Yerushalayim. Since the Leviim don’t have a place in Eretz Yisroel, and they don’t even get the gifts that the kohanim do, we need to make sure that they will also be happy on Yom Tov!
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There are two things that happened on Yud Shevat. The first thing that happened was the histalkus of the Frierdiker Rebbe, and then right away the beginning of the Rebbe’s nesius.
Even though we feel more connected to the fact that it is the beginning of the Rebbe’s nesius, it is clear that the Rebbe also wanted us to keep the minhagim connected to the Yom Hilula of the Frierdiker Rebbe. There is a letter the Rebbe wrote before Yud Shevat, with the minhagim of the yartzeit.
One of these minhagim is important to know for the Shabbos before Yud Shevat: It is a minhag to get an aliyah to the Torah in connection with the yartzeit.
In many sichos, the Rebbe also speaks about making a farbrengen, if possible, also on the Shabbos before Yud Shevat.
Of course, we need to think to ourselves to make hachlatos in connection with Yud Shevat, to add in learning the Rebbe’s Torah, and making sure we are fulfilling the horaos that the Rebbe gives us on how to live our lives in our time, as we prepare for Kabolas Pnei Moshiach Tzidkeinu.
See farbrengen Gimmel Nisan Tof-Shin-Mem-Beis, and other sichos and letters quoted in Kovetz Shivim Shana
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We have been about the meaning of the morning brachos, Birchos Hashachar. Today we will learn about what Birchos Hashachar accomplishes according to Chassidus:
Every night, while we are sleeping, part of our neshama goes up to Shomayim. Then, in the morning, Hashem gives us back our neshama fresh and new!
But when our neshama comes back, it is only “b’apo,” in our nostrils.
Before we are able to do the Avodah of davening, where our neshama spreads into our body, the first step is to remind ourselves that Ruchnius is more important than Gashmius.
We know this when we think about ourselves: As we get older, the guf gets weaker, but our neshama gets stronger!
The same is true with everything in Gashmius. Gashmius by itself falls apart, but the chayus of Hashem stays forever!
There are maamarim in Chassidus that explain how we see this message in the brachos of Birchos Hashachar!
Reminding ourselves that Ruchnius is the most important thing gets us started on our avodah of waking up our neshama and spreading it throughout our guf during davening.
See Ohr HaTefillah, Birchos Hashachar
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The halacha is that children — boys or girls — who understand the inyan of Shabbos have a mitzvah for Chinuch to make Kiddush or be yotzei Kiddush by hearing it from someone else.
If a child is making his own Kiddush, it is important to know how much wine or grape juice he needs to drink! The halacha is that a person who makes Kiddush needs to drink at least a Melo Lugmav, enough to fill up one cheek. But this isn’t the same size for everyone, it goes by the actual size of your cheek! So a small child, who has a small cheek, doesn’t need to drink much at all when he makes Kiddush.
But even though he doesn’t need to DRINK very much, we still need to make sure that the Kiddush cup is the right size. The smallest size for a kosher Kiddush cup is a Revi’is, and even a child should use at least this size, even if he will only drink a small part of it.
Baed on the audio halacha shiurim of Rabbi Farkash, and see Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, siman Reish-Ayin-Alef, se’if Chof-Daled
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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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The Navi says, “Kimei Tzeis’cah Me’Eretz Mitzrayim Arenu Niflaos.” In the time of the Geulah, Hashem will show us nisim like when we came out of Mitzrayim.
From here we learn that the Geulah from Mitzrayim is an example for the Geulah of Moshiach!
Here is one way that they are the same:
It says about Yetziyas Mitzrayim that it came in the zechus of the women — Bizchus Noshim Tzidkonios Nigalu Avoseinu. Moshiach will also come in the zechus of the Noshim Tzidkonios (righteous women) of our times!
That is why the Frierdiker Rebbe and the Rebbe were very careful to make sure that women have a very good Chinuch. Especially compared to the Rebbeim in other generations, they gave so much of their time and kochos for this! There were special letters, sichos and horaos just for the women, to help make sure that the Noshim of our times will be Noshim Tzidkonios, who will bring Moshiach in their zechus.
See Sefer Hasichos Nun-Beis p. 300
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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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