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CHUMASH

Parshas Vayakhel - Shlishi with Rashi

Moshe told the Yidden that Betzalel (from Shevet Yehudah) and Oholiav (from Shevet Dan) were given special wisdom and talent from Hashem to make things for the Mishkan. It will be their job to be in charge of making the pieces of the Mishkan and all of the keilim. Any other Yidden who had special kochos or talents should help too!

Shevet Yehuda was the most respected Shevet, and Shevet Dan had the simplest yichus. But to build the Mishkan, Hashem specifically wanted that it should be made with people from EVERY kind of yichus.

In one day, they already had all they needed for the Mishkan, and Moshe told everyone to stop bringing things!

The Yidden stopped bringing, and they ended up with even more materials than they needed to build the whole Mishkan!

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TEHILLIM

104 - 105

In today’s first Kapitel, Dovid Hamelech tells us about how amazing the world is, and how Hashem made everything just perfect!

The second posuk says, “Oteh Or KaSalma” — “Hashem puts on light, like clothes.”

When someone is wearing clothes, we can only see the clothes, but we know who is wearing them!

And when we see light, like the sun, we can remember that it’s like Hashem’s clothes! Even though we can’t see Hashem, Hashem is there! That will help us have Yiras Shomayim.

There is also a Ruchnius kind of light: When we learn Torah, it gives light to our neshama! And this light is ALSO Hashem’s “clothes” — and it also needs to remind us that Hashem is “wearing” it, and then we’ll learn Torah with Yiras Shomayim.

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TANYA

Likutei Amarim Perek Lamed

Sometimes a person might be all clogged up in his heart, because his Yetzer Hara is feeling all proud and chutzpadik. One way to make his Yetzer Hara stop being so proud is to think about how he is no better than the biggest rasha he can think of, since he isn’t fighting as hard with HIS Yetzer Hara as he expects the rasha to fight with his.

In fact, not only is he not better than the Kal Shebekalim, he should feel really humble, because he is WORSE!

The Chachomim say that when an Am Ha’aretz (someone who doesn’t know very much Torah) does an aveira, even on purpose, it’s counted like he made a mistake, because he didn’t understand what an aveira really means.

The Kal Shebekalim doesn’t know as much Torah as this person does. The Kal Shebekalim doesn’t know as many halachos as this person does. He doesn’t really understand Avodas Hashem at all!

But we ARE supposed to be working on our Avodas Hashem, and we aren’t working as hard as we think he is supposed to be working. So we have no reason to feel proud!

The Gemara says a story about Elisha ben Avuya (Acher), who was the teacher of R’ Meir. Something happened that made him go off the derech of Torah and mitzvos. Because of this, a Bas Kol came from Shomayim and said that it would be much harder for him to do teshuvah, because he KNEW the greatness of Hashem, and still chose to drop the path of Torah and mitzvos.

This shows us that Hashem expects much more from someone who knows about Torah and Hashem!

IY”H soon we will finish learning about how we can use all of these thoughts, not just to take away false pride, but to bring simcha into our Avodas Hashem!

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HAYOM YOM

Chof-Alef Adar Alef

In the Mishnah and in the Gemara, we see the title “chossid” used a lot. For example, it is used about Adam Harishon, who is called a chossid because he recognized what happened as a result of the Cheit Eitz Hadaas, and fasted and did teshuvah for 130 years.

When the Chachomim talk about a chossid, they are talking about someone who is very wise, has very good midos, or both.

But when we use the name “Chossid” in Chassidus, we mean something else. We mean someone who:

1) Someone who knows who he is (Makir Mehuso)! (In Tanya we learn about who we are as individuals, that we have a constant battle with our Yetzer Hara, and the kochos Hashem gives us to win over it.)

2) He knows which parts of Torah he knows already.

3) He knows how he is using his time and kochos in learning Torah now.

4) He knows how he is doing in keeping the mitzvos and following Shulchan Aruch.

5) He is doing his best to fix up things he knows he is missing, and where he could be doing better.

6) He has a lot of Kabolas Ol to do what he knows he has to do!

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SEFER HAMITZVOS

Shiur #254 - Mitzvas Asei #194

Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Asei #194) is that a thief needs to give back whatever he stole, together with an extra chomeish (fifth)! (If the thing he stole changed, he needs to pay what it was worth to the person he stole it from.)

We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Vayikra: וְהֵשִׁיב אֶת הַגְּזֵלָה אֲשֶׁר גָּזָל

Because of this mitzvah, the aveira of stealing is called a “Lav Shenitak L’Asei”, meaning that the Mitzvas Lo Saasei can be “fixed up” by doing a Mitzvas Asei – in this case, the Lo Saasei of stealing can be fixed up by giving back what was stolen plus an extra fifth.

The details of this mitzvah are explained in the last perakim of Mesechta Bava Kama.

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RAMBAM

Hilchos Gezeilah VaAveidah

In today’s Rambam, we learn about Hashovas Aveida.

Perek Yud-Gimmel teaches us about how we find the owner of something we found. Outside of Yerushalayim there used to be a big rock that people would stand on and announce what they found!

There’s a halacha that in a certain case, if we find something and can’t find out who it belongs to, we should watch it until Eliyahu Hanavi comes with Moshiach, and he will tell us what to do with it!

Perek Yud-Daled tells us that while we’re waiting to give something back, we need to take care of it so it doesn’t get ruined. For example, if we find something made of wood, we should make sure to use it so it doesn’t get rotten.

Perek Tes-Vov teaches us about when we DON’T need to give something back — if the owner gave hope that he will ever find it again (yiush). For example, if someone loses something in the sea, or in the sand on the beach, they don’t really expect to ever find it again.

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RAMBAM PEREK ECHOD

Hilchos Tumas Meis - Perek Yud-Gimmel

The Rambam teaches us what is called “under the same roof” (Ohel). Something strong is counted as a roof — even sturdy branches of a tree! They bring the tumah to whatever is underneath it, but keep the tumah from spreading to whatever is OVER the Ohel (“Meviin Vechotzetzin”).

But something that is not strong and will not stay does not become an Ohel. For example, snow is not counted as a roof, because it will melt. So an igloo, which is made of ice and snow, would not be counted as an Ohel and make things inside it tomei.

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INYANA D'YOMA

Chassidishe Parsha

We’re learning about the Mishkan now in Chumash, but it’s not the first time! We just learned about the Mishkan before.

If we look at both places where we talk about the Mishkan, we will see one very big difference — the order.

In Parshas Terumah and Tetzaveh, we first learn about 1. the keilim of the Mishkan building, then 2. the building of the Mishkan, and finally about 3. keeping Shabbos.

In Parshas Vayakhel and Pekudei, we first learn about 1. keeping Shabbos, then we learn about 2. the building of the Mishkan, and finally we learn about 3. the keilim that went inside.

But that’s exactly backwards! Why?

Chassidus teaches us that each of these three things mean something different in Ruchnius:

1. Keeping Shabbos means the extra neshama, the Neshama Yeseira (Yechidah) that we get on Shabbos — especially during the special tefillos of Shabbos!

2. The Mishkan building, the walls and curtains, are like the mitzvos that we do.

3. The keilim of the Mishkan mean the Torah that we learn.

The first time we learned about the Mishkan, we learned about it the way Hashem sees it. But in Parshas Vayakhel, we are learning about the Mishkan the way WE need to do it!

In our Avodas Hashem, we need to use the second order — first Shabbos, then the building, then the keilim.

First we need to start with the koach of Shabbos, the Neshama Yeseira. On Shabbos, we don’t need to work, so we are able to daven for a long time (b’arichus) on Shabbos. We need to use our Neshama Yeseira, and especially our tefillos, to have chayus in our Torah and mitzvos. This koach will last us all week! We can use this koach when we do mitzvos, and finally that will give us koach in our learning and understanding Torah!

See Torah Ohr, Parshas Vayakhel

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TEFILLAH

Selach Lanu

The Chachomim set up the words of davening to help us express ourselves properly when we stand before Hashem three times a day.

The first three and last three brachos of Shemoneh Esrei praise and thank Hashem. In the middle 13 brachos, we ask for our needs. These 13 brachos are divided into two sections: The first half ask Hashem to help us have a Geulah Protis, and the second half ask Hashem to give us a Geulah Klolis.

The Geulah Klolis is when all Yidden are taken out of this Golus. The Geulah Protis is when we are free of the Golus inside of us — all of the things that stop us from doing our Avodas Hashem properly. Problems with health, parnasa, and our own Yetzer Haras make it hard for us to serve Hashem. In the first half of these middle brachos, we ask Hashem to free us from them.

The first of these brachos is Ata Chonen, where we ask Hashem to give us sechel. It’s very easy to get distracted by things around us, and get confused about what we are supposed to be doing. We ask Hashem to give us sechel to know what to do and how to do it!

The next bracha is Hashiveinu Avinu, that Hashem should give us the koach to actually DO what we know is the right thing!

After that comes the bracha of Selach Lanu. We ask Hashem to forgive us for our past aveiros. Once we prepared for davening properly, and asked Hashem to help us serve Him, we are on a higher level than before! We ask Hashem to help make sure that what we did in the past won’t stop us from doing the right thing now. We ask Hashem to free us from the bad habits we got into, so we can have a fresh start today.

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HALACHOS HATZRICHOS

Davening First Thing

As soon as it is time for davening, starting from Alos Hashachar, we are not allowed to do anything that is not part of preparing for davening or davening itself.

In Shulchan Aruch, there are a few examples given: We are not allowed to go to a friend’s house to greet him, because we are giving kavod to someone else before we show kavod to Hashem! We can’t take care of any personal needs so that we won’t get busy with anything aside for davening. We aren’t allowed to eat and drink unless we need it because we are sick or to have kavana in davening.

Starting from the morning, the very first thing we do is to get ready for davening, and then daven right away!

See Shulchan Aruch siman 89

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

Feeling the Emes

The Medrash Tehillim says that when Moshiach comes, if a person will try to pull off a fig from a tree on Shabbos (which is one of the Lamed-Tes Melachos), the tree will cry out, “It’s Shabbos today! You can’t do it!”

Then, the world won’t feel separate from Hashem. The Emes, that it was created to fulfill the Ratzon of Hashem, will be so obvious that the world won’t let anything be done against Hashem’s Ratzon!

See Sefer Hasichos 5752, p. 31, ha’ara 42

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