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CHUMASH
Parshas Yisro - Rishon with Rashi
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Yisro comes to join the Yidden!
When Yisro, Moshe’s father-in-law, heard about Kriyas Yam Suf and the war with Amalek, he came to meet the Yidden near Har Sinai.
Yisro brought his daughter Tziporah (Moshe’s wife) and her sons Gershom and Eliezer. Moshe had left them in Midyan when he went to Mitzrayim to take the Yidden out, so they wouldn’t have to suffer in Mitzrayim.
When Moshe heard they were coming, he went out to meet them — and of course, the rest of the Yidden came too! Moshe bowed and kissed his father-in-law, and asked how he was doing. Then they went inside a tent.
Moshe wanted to bring Yisro closer to Torah, so even though Yisro had already heard a little bit about Kriyas Yam Suf and the war with Amalek, Moshe told him about all of the nissim that Hashem did, with all of the details. Yisro said that he was very happy that Hashem had helped the Yidden.
Even though Yisro already knew about Hashem beforehand, now he recognized the true greatness of Hashem, and how Hashem runs everything in the world with Hashgacha Protis.
Yisro brought korbanos to Hashem, and there was a special seudah with Aharon and the zekeinim.
We learn about Yisro in the first three aliyos of this week. As we will see in the Rashi at the beginning of tomorrow’s Chumash, many of the details written here happened after Matan Torah, which we didn’t learn about yet. Still, the Torah tells us about them now, even before telling us about Matan Torah. There is an important reason for this: The Zohar says that Hashem could only give the Torah after Yisro, who knew about all the Avodah Zarah in the world, came to recognize Hashem and wanted to get the Torah with all of the Yidden.
This is a lesson for us too, that even the part of us that knows about all of the Gashmius and taavos of the world, our guf and Nefesh Habehamis, ALSO has to want to get the Torah! Only when we are able to do that, will we be able to understand and have hatzlacha in Torah. (See Likutei Sichos chelek Daled, p. 1271)
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Today’s shiur Tehillim are Ayin-Beis through Ayin-Vov.
When we say Kapitel Ayin-Daled (74), one of the things we think about is how much we want the Geulah. It speaks to us about how the Mishkan and Beis Hamikdash were destroyed, and we don’t see nisim from Hashem anymore. We need the Geulah so much, and we cry out to Hashem “Ad Mosai!”
One of the pesukim in the kapitel is “Ad Mosai Elokim Yechoref Tzar” — “Hashem, Ad Mosai? How long will You let the goyim say chutzpa’dike things?”
Still, even in Golus, there are times when Hashem shines in the world and we can see real nissim!
These kinds of nisim remind us that Hashem is WITH US in Golus and that the Geulah is coming very soon!
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Chof-Alef
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Did you ever hear a story of Mesiras Nefesh? Did you hear about a Yid who did not eat Chometz on Pesach, even when he didn’t have anything else to eat? Or a person who wouldn’t work on Shabbos, even if it meant losing his job?
When we hear these stories, we know that we would do the same thing!
All of these Yidden had Mesiras Nefesh because they knew that these big aveiros would separate them from Hashem and from Yiddishkeit, and they loved Hashem too much to ever do that!
Now imagine if we could have Mesiras Nefesh not say Lashon Hara, even if we will be embarrassed, or not to eat a snack that we aren’t sure about the hechsher of, even if it means we will be hungry until lunch.
It might seem easier to have Mesiras Nefesh not to work on Shabbos than not to do those things!
But the Alter Rebbe is teaching us a way to have Mesiras Nefesh not to do ANY aveira! We can do this by realizing that ANY aveira separates us from Hashem and from Yiddishkeit, and we love Hashem too much to ever do that!
To really feel this way, we need to understand Achdus Hashem, how the whole world is one with Hashem.
The Alter Rebbe explains that the whole existence of the world ONLY comes from the Dvar Hashem, the words that Hashem uses to create it! Even though a person’s words are separate from him, nothing is separate from Hashem, and so the whole world and everything in it is all one with Hashem.
We will IY”H learn more about how this helps us have Mesiras Nefesh over the next few perakim.
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In today’s Hayom Yom we learn about the hiskashrus that a Rebbe has to Chassidim.
Tonight is Chamisha Asar B’Shevat, so we don’t say Tachanun when we daven Mincha.
All of the Rebbeim ask Hashem to help their Chassidim. Even more, they also make special times to think about each chossid, thinking about the chossid’s hiskashrus to the Rebbe, and connecting to them too in a similar way.
Thinking about a person brings out special kochos inside of them. We see this in Gashmius, that even by just looking very hard at another person — that it will cause the other person to turn around and look at you too. When a Rebbe thinks about his chossid, it also wakes up the chossid’s inner kochos to “turn around” and become closer to Hashem.
The Rebbe said in a farbrengen (Yud Shevat Tof-Shin-Chof-Alef) why it is important to know this: If a Chossid all of a sudden feels a strong feeling of connection to the Rebbe, it could be that this feeling came because the Rebbe is thinking about him then. So if it happens, he shouldn’t think that it came from his own hiskashrus! It could be it was because the Rebbe was thinking about him, and because it didn’t come from his own avodah, it won’t stay! So he should be very careful to DO something of what the Rebbe wants, so that this hisorerus will stay and become a part of him.
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Today we learn the same mitzvah as yesterday (Mitzvas Asei #104) — that a man who has a certain kind of tumah that comes from the body which is called Zav, becomes Tomei. This mitzvah includes all of the dinim of how he becomes a Zav and also how he makes others tomei.
We also learn a new mitzvah (Mitzvas Asei #96) — about the kind of tumah that comes from the body of a neveila — a dead animal.
The Rambam also tells us a general rule about all of the mitzvos we learn about someone becoming tomei: It’s not a mitzvah that we need to become tomei, or to be careful not to become tomei. The mitzvah is to follow the dinim of how a person becomes tomei, and to follow the rules which are given for a tomei person, like not going into the Beis Hamikdash or eating from korbanos.
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RAMBAM
Hilchos Metamei Mishkav U'Moshav - Shaar Avos HaTumos
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In today’s Rambam, we learn the last Perek about people with a body kind of tumah, and start learning about other kinds of tumah.
Perek Yud-Gimmel: There are some people that are careful about the halachos of tumah and tahara. Such a person is called a Chaver. Other people are called Amei Ha’aretz. If someone’s workers are Amei Ha’aretz, they need to be watched carefully to make sure their products stay tahor. If a chaver wasn’t paying attention to his possessions, they may become tamei.
Perek Alef: The first perek of Hilchos Shaar Avos HaTumah teaches us about today’s second mitzvah: that a neveilah, the dead body of an animal, or part of one, makes other things Tomei. If a kosher animal was shechted, it does not make other things tomei.
Perek Beis: We learn more dinim about the tumah of neveilah. One of the things we learn about in this perek is when a shechitah which was not done properly makes the animal a neveilah.
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In the last perek of Bechoros, we see what happens if someone isn’t sure if an animal is Maaser or not. For example if someone counted wrong, or if other animals got mixed together.
Mazel Tov! We have now finished this set of halachos.
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We learned in today’s Hayom Yom that we don’t say Tachanun in Mincha, because it’s Erev Chamisha Asar B’shvat.
What is Chamisha Asar B’shvat? It says in the first Mishna of Mesechta Rosh Hashana that there are four “Rosh Hashanas,” four days in the year that are the beginning of the year for certain things.
Chamisha Asar B’shvat is the beginning of the year for mitzvos that have to do with trees, for taking off terumah and maaser, which need to be taken off for each year separately.
Even though some of these mitzvos aren’t kept nowadays, and none of them are kept outside of Eretz Yisroel, it is a minhag to celebrate on Chamisha Asar B’shvat!
The Torah says the words, “Ki Ha’adam Eitz Hasadeh.”
It is written in seforim based on this posuk that a person has things that are similar to a tree. Just like a tree grows and gives fruit, a person needs to constantly grow in Yiddishkeit and Torah and mitzvos, and also be an example for others so they will grow too.
In the year Tof-Shin-Chof-Beis, there was a group of students that came to the Rebbe for Yud Shevat. Before they left, they had a yechidus. (This yechidus was later edited by the Rebbe, and printed in Likutei Sichos.) The Rebbe spoke to them about Chamisha-Asar B’Shvat. The Rebbe told them that we need to learn from how a tree is always growing, to always make sure to make tomorrow even better than today!
The Rebbe gave them brachos, since they are learning in the Rebbe’s yeshiva, that Hashem should help that they should fulfill the horaos of the Rebbe and always grow in their Yiddishkeit! They should be a constant source of nachas to their families, their teachers, and the Rebbe.
See Mishna Rosh Hashana perek Alef, and Likutei Sichos chelek Beis, p. 518
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We are learning the meaning of Birchas Hamazon. We learned about the four brachos of Birchas Hamazon:
- Moshe Rabbeinu gave us the nusach of the first bracha, when the mahn fell
- Yehoshua gave us the nusach of the second bracha, when they entered Eretz Yisroel
- Dovid and Shlomo Hamelech gave us the nusach of the third bracha, in connection with Malchus Beis Dovid and the building of the Beis Hamikdash
- The nusach of the fourth bracha was set up by the Chachomim, in connection with the nisim of Beitar.
The fourth bracha does not go to the end of bentching. Afterwards, we ask Hashem to have Rachmanus on us and give us different things. We start each line with the word Horachaman, meaning Hashem Who has Rachmanus.
The Horachamans in general are based on the Gemara, but each nusach has a different list and asks for these things in different words.
After the list of Horachaman, we also say some more pesukim at the end of bentching, which we will IY”H learn more about later.
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On Chamisha Asar B’shvat, we eat fruit from trees, especially fruits which Eretz Yisroel is praised for, and also bukser, or carob.
There are some minhagim kept by Sefardim, who say parts of Torah related to fruits, and in Kabbalah there are explanations for each of the fruits which are eaten. It is not our minhag to say these things.
From 5731 to 5752, the Rebbe made farbrengens almost every year and spoke about Chamisha Asar B’shvat. This was a new minhag for Chassidim! The Rebbe encouraged the following things:
1) Make sure to keep the minhag to eat fruits during Chamisha Asar B’shvat.
2) Make farbrengens in honor of Chamisha Asar B’shvat.
3) Speak about the meaning of the seven fruits of Eretz Yisroel in our Avodas Hashem, and the connection a Yid has to trees and growing. (We will learn a little bit about that tomorrow IY”H!)
4) Make hachlatos to grow in our Avodas Hashem, especially in a way that we’ll enjoy, the same way we enjoy eating fruits!
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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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One of the hardest plants to grow is a fruit tree. It needs a lot of care to make sure that it will grow strong and tall! Still, it is worth all of the hard work, because of the many delicious fruits that will grow from each tree.
The Rebbe teaches us that Torah learning is like growing a tree!
In the year Tof-Shin-Lamed-Alef, on Chamisha-Asar Bishvat, the Rebbe told us that now is the time to change the world by working harder in our Torah learning. Besides for looking for more time to learn, we also should work harder on what we are already learning — by paying more attention, trying to understand it better, or reviewing more. This is called learning with yegiah, hard work!
Just like with growing a tree, this hard work in learning Torah is also worth it! Working hard in learning Torah means that our Torah learning will have hatzlacha! This is what we say in the Yud-Beis Pesukim, when we have Yagaata — we work hard, then Matzasa — we will succeed!
But, the Rebbe said, we will not have to wait that long!
When we plant a tree, it takes years for any fruit to grow. But in the times of Moshiach, food will grow right away! We learn this from a Nevuah said by the Navi Amos.
The Gemara and Medrash tell us that there were even some times that this already happened, like in the times of the Navi Yoel, where the world already acted in a Moshiach’dike way, and things people planted grew right away!
The Rebbe tells us that our Torah learning will certainly also be in a this way, and we will see hatzlacha from our yegiah in Torah learning right away!
See Likutei Sichos vol. 6 p. 312
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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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