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Now that Hashem told Moshe how to make the Bigdei Kehunah (clothes for the Kohanim), Moshe now is told how to make the Kohanim ready to do the Avodah, during the Chanukas Hamishkan, after the Mishkan will be built: Moshe should take three korbanos — 1 bull and 2 rams, and make three different kinds of matzah, made with flour, water and oil: 1) Ten “Lechem Matzos:” A dough is made of flour and water, and that dough is boiled, then baked, and then fried in the oil. 2) Ten “Challos Matzos:” A dough is made with flour, water, and oil mixed together, and then baked. 3) Ten “Rekikei Matzos:” A dough is made with flour and water and baked, and they are smeared with oil in the shape of a Kof afterwards. Put all of these matzos into a basket, and bring them and the korbanos to the Chatzer of the Mishkan. Aharon and his sons, the other kohanim, should go into the Mikvah, and then Moshe should dress Aharon in the clothes of the Kohen Gadol. Then Moshe should get the things for the Mishkan ready to be used by putting Shemen Hamishcha (a special kind of oil) on them. He should also put Shemen Hamishcha on Aharon, with a matching Kof-shape like on the matzah! Then Moshe should dress the rest of the kohanim, making them and their children kohanim forever. After that, Moshe should prepare the korbanos and bring them on the Mizbeiach. IY”H in the next two days of Chumash we will learn the rest of the instructions of how to prepare the Mishkan and the Kohanim in these days of preparation, called the Shivas Yemei Hamiluim. |
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Before Kapitel Mem-Ches (like for most kapitelach) there are a few words that tell us what the Kapitel is about. The words before this kapitel tell us that it is about when Moshiach will come — how beautiful Yerushalayim will be, and how we will bring the korbanos and see all of the things the Neviim told us will happen when Moshiach comes. |
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Today’s Tanya is very long. You may have noticed that since Yud-Tes Kislev, every Wednesday, we learn a whole perek (or a big part of it), and during the rest of the week we only learn much smaller sections. If you look in the shiurim of Tanya in Hayom Yom, you will see that the first year of Chitas, which was also a Shana Me’uberes, this long day was on Shabbos. The Frierdiker Rebbe set up that on every day of the week we learn a few lines of Tanya, and on Shabbos we learn a long section. We keep the same Moreh Shiur every year, and so this year, we learn the long section on Wednesday. When we’re in the middle of davening or learning or trying to do what Hashem wants, we sometimes get distracted by other thoughts. That might make us feel frustrated — see, our Avodas Hashem is worthless, because we keep getting distracted! But the Alter Rebbe tells us that we shouldn’t feel frustrated, we should be happy! We need to remember that our Yetzer Hara and our Yetzer Tov don’t take turns. They are both fighting the whole time! It’s not like playing jump rope where only one person can jump at a time, it’s like playing soccer where there are two teams that are fighting for the ball the whole time! So when we are doing something very good and connected to Hashem, the Yetzer Hara gets scared and needs to fight back harder! That’s why the Yetzer Hara tries to distract us specifically when we are doing something good. So instead of being frustrated and upset, we should realize that those distractions are a sign that we are doing really well, and the Yetzer Hara is getting scared! We should be excited to work even harder, since we are winning the fight against the Yetzer Hara! We should ignore those distractions just like we would try to ignore loud noises that we can’t stop in the middle of davening. But what if those thoughts are really bothering us and we can’t concentrate on our Avodas Hashem, no matter how hard we try? Then we should remember that we are not fighting by ourselves. We should make ourselves humble before Hashem, and ask Hashem to help us ignore those thoughts — for His sake, and for the sake of our neshama, which is a part of Hashem inside of us. And then certainly Hashem will help us! In a letter of the Rebbe, the Rebbe says that this is not just in davening, but in ALL areas of kedusha! Whenever kedusha is strong and successful, that’s when the kelipah in the world will fight hard to try not to let the kedusha win! When we see that happen, it shouldn’t make us disappointed. Instead, it should be a sign for us that we’re having hatzlacha, and give us chayus to work harder for kedusha! |
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When the Alter Rebbe needed a melamed to teach his son, the Mitteler Rebbe, when was still a young boy, he chose one of the talmidim of the Maggid. The Alter Rebbe told him, “We’ll make a deal! I have a mitzvah to teach my son, and you have a mitzvah to earn money for your family. Let us switch mitzvos: You will learn with my son, and I will pay you so you can take care of your family.” Then the Alter Rebbe told the Melamed how he should teach: “You need to start with Alef.” And the Alter Rebbe told him what an Alef is. An alef is a dot on top, and a dot underneath — that’s an Alef. Then he explained what this means: A child needs to know that the Alef of Torah is the Yud on top — Hashem, the Yud underneath — the Yid, and the line of Emunah which connects them. Another version of what the Alter Rebbe told him: A Yud above is the neshama, a Yud underneath is the body, and a line of Yiras Shomayim connects them. During a Yud Shevat farbrengen in the early years of the Rebbe’s nesius (5716), the Rebbe told this story. The Rebbe repeated the Alter Rebbe’s words with the same niggun the Alter Rebbe used:s3.wasabisys.com/chitas/Alef.m4a |
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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Asei #109) is the same as yesterday’s — to keep the halachos of Mikvah, where people and Keilim can become Tahor from most kinds of Tumah. This mitzvah comes from a posuk in Parshas Metzora: וְרָחַץ בַּמַּיִם אֶת כָּל בְּשָׂרוֹ The details are explained in Mesechta Mikvaos and Mesechta Tvul Yom. |
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more about the Mikvah. Perek Ches tells us when we can join two bodies of water to make them into one Mikvah. For example, if there is another pool of ANY kind of water touching a mikvah, then EITHER of them can be used as a Mikvah! (That’s actually the way our mikvaos are usually made today — there is a Mikvah with rainwater underground, and then the pool of water we actually dip into is connected with a hole to the rainwater underneath.) Perek Tes teaches us six levels of Mikvah. The highest level is a spring of water. This level of Mikvah needs to be used for things like the water that gets mixed with the ashes of the Parah Adumah (Mei Nidah) which needs water with the highest level of tahara! In Perek Yud the Rambam teaches us about times when we’re not sure about something. What if we’re not sure that there was enough water in the mikvah? What if we’re not sure that the water that fell in the Mikvah was enough to make it posul? |
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The Rambam teaches us what happens if an animal that is supposed to be a Korban or a Temurah has a baby. Mazel Tov! We now finished Sefer Korbanos! |
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The last edited maamar of the Rebbe was given out 30 years ago, for Purim Katan 5752. This maamar, Ve’ata Tetzaveh, which we will IY”H learn more about later, is on a posuk from this week’s parsha! We will learn one hora’ah from this maamar: Our parsha starts off with “Ve’ata Tetzaveh Es Bnei Yisroel,” that Hashem is telling Moshe to command the Yidden about the olive oil for the Menorah. The Yidden should crush the olives so the oil comes out and can be used to bring light (Kosis Lamaor). The Rebbe explains that crushing the olive to make light has an important lesson for us in Avodas Hashem! Moshiach is about to come, and we will soon be able to see Hashem in the world and feel Hashem’s presence, with all of the good things that come along with it. But right now we don’t see it, and that hurts a Yid very much. That brings out the deepest part of our neshama, to cry out “Ad Mosai” to Hashem, and be ready to do whatever we can to bring Moshiach. It’s like what happens when we squeeze an olive (kosis)! The oil comes out — the best part! Also when we feel “squeezed” (tzubrochen) that we are in Golus, the best part of our neshama comes out, and it can be felt and seen in every part of our lives! See the Maamar Ve’ata Tetzaveh 5752 |
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In the first bracha of Shemoneh Esrei, we praise Hashem using three words — HaGadol, HaGibor, VehaNora, saying that Hashem is great, strong, and awesome. These three praises of Hashem come from the Torah, when Moshe Rabbeinu used them to praise Hashem, in Chumash Devarim. Since then, Yidden used to use these words also when they davened. But at the time of the Navi Yirmiyahu, the goyim came and destroyed the Beis Hamikdash. Yirmiyahu felt that Hashem was hiding His midah of awesomeness by letting such a thing happen. So he stopped using the word “HaNora” to praise Hashem. Then, when the Yidden were being brought into Golus, the Navi Daniel saw and was very sad. He asked, how do we see Hashem’s strength if His children are being taken away by the goyim? So he stopped using the word “HaGibor” to praise Hashem. Later, the Anshei Kneses Hagedolah came together to write down the nusach of davening. They decided that we SHOULD praise Hashem with all of these words! Because even when Hashem lets His children be taken away, we can see Hashem’s strength! Hashem holds Himself back from punishing the goyim right away, and gives them a chance to do teshuvah. And even when Hashem lets the Beis Hamikdash be destroyed, we can see Hashem’s awesomeness — because if Hashem was not awesome, how could the Yidden, who are so few, survive with so many goyim around them trying to destroy them? R’ Yehoshua ben Levi says that this is actually why the Anshei Kneses Hagedolah are called by the name “great”: Because they brought back Hashem’s kavod by using these three words again to praise Hashem — HaKeil HaGadol, HaGibor, VehaNora! See Gemara Yoma daf Samach-Tes, amud Beis |
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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 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 |
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לעילוי נשמת הרה״ח ר׳ דניאל יצחק ע״ה בן ר׳ אפרים שי׳ מאסקאוויץ
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On Asara B’Teves 5750, a certain man came to the Rebbe for dollars. While standing by the Rebbe, the man asked for many brachos. He kept asking for more an more things, until the Rebbe finally suggested, “Maybe you should ask for Moshiach to come?” The man agreed, and answered, “Im Yirtza Hashem.” (“If Hashem wants”) The Rebbe told him, “Hashem already wants! It’s up to the Yidden to want Moshiach as well!” From the sefer Zoreia Tzedakos (stories about Dollars), translated in Moshiach Weekly #17 |
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לע"נ התינוק זאב ארי' ע"ה בן יבלט"א הרה"ח ר' שניאור זלמן שי' גליק
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