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CHUMASH
Parshas Shoftim - Chamishi with Rashi
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Moshe Rabbeinu explains to the Yidden what is a true Navi, and a Navi Sheker. Moshe also tells the Yidden about separating Arei Miklat, and that an Ir Miklat doesn’t save a person who killed on purpose!
Hashem doesn’t let us try to figure out the future by asking magicians or people who use Tumah to tell us about what will happen later. Still, Hashem DOES give us ways to know what will happen in the future when it is needed. Hashem tells a Navi what will happen, and the Navi tells the rest of the Yidden. A Navi can tell us what Hashem wants us to do, and warn us that we need to do Teshuvah so that not good things won’t happen.
But if someone is a Navi Sheker, a FAKE Navi, he needs to be punished by the Beis Din! We know that someone is a fake Navi if they say what will happen later and then it doesn’t happen, or if they say that Hashem wants us to do an aveira.
Moshe Rabbeinu also reminds the Yidden what they learned before about the Ir Miklat: In Eretz Yisroel, we have to set up Arei Miklat, cities that are a safe place for someone who killed a person by mistake. The person can run there, and then the family of the person who was killed (the Goel Hadam) won’t hurt him.
But if someone killed a person ON PURPOSE, it doesn’t help to stay in an Ir Miklat — we send him out, because he needs to get punished by the Beis Din.
In today’s Chumash, we have a mitzvah that will be kept for the first time only when Moshiach comes! The Torah tells us that when Hashem makes Eretz Yisroel bigger, which will only happen when Moshiach comes, we will need to add three more Arei Miklat.
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Today we are finishing the entire Sefer Tehillim, kapitelach Kuf-Mem-Hey to Kuf-Nun!
The first kapitel of today’s Tehillim is very special! It starts with the words “Tehillah LeDovid,” which is the third posuk of Ashrei. We say Ashrei three times every day in davening! (Twice in Shacharis and once in Mincha.) Ashrei goes in the order of the Alef-Beis — one posuk for each letter (except for Nun).
The posuk that starts with Zayin is “Zecher Rav Tuvcha Yabiu.”
There is a long maamar of the Alter Rebbe in his “Siddur Im Dach” (Siddur with maamorim of Chassidus) that explains this posuk. (The Rebbe tells us about this maamar in today’s Hayom Yom!)
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TANYA
Igeres Hakodesh Siman Tes
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The Alter Rebbe tells us today how important the mitzvah of tzedakah is for us, especially now, before the Geulah!
In Eilu Devarim (at the end of morning Brachos) we talk about some of the mitzvos and the reward we get for them. One of these mitzvos is Gemilus Chasadim, which is tzedakah. The last thing it says is “VeSalmud Torah Keneged Kulam” — learning Torah is worth as much as ALL of them together! So we see that Torah learning is greater than tzedakah.
The Alter Rebbe says that this was only in the time of the Gemara, when the main mitzvah was learning Torah, and there were many great Chachomim, Tannaim and Amoraim. But nowadays, in order to bring Moshiach, TZEDAKAH is the most important!
The Rebbe explains that what the Torah says, “Vesalmud Torah Keneged Kulam,” doesn’t ever chas veshalom change. It is just that the situation can change! For example, in halacha, it says that if there is a mitzvah that nobody else can do, we need to stop learning Torah in order to do it. The Alter Rebbe is saying here that according to the Torah, because of the situation in Ruchnius and Gashmius in the time right before Moshiach comes, the most important mitzvah to do is the mitzvah of tzedakah!
This letter is another one of the letters the Alter Rebbe sent with the shluchim who would go around each year collecting money for the Yidden in Eretz Yisroel, to inspire the Chassidim to give more.
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We start saying Ledovid Hashem Ori today in davening! It is the minhag of the Rebbeim to practice blowing the Shofar — just one time — during the day. Tomorrow we will start blowing the shofar after davening.
We learned earlier in the Hayom Yom about how the Alter Rebbe’s maamorim started off as short pieces, called “verter,” and later became longer and longer until the Alter Rebbe was saying long maamorim.
The Mitteler Rebbe was the next generation of Chassidus after the Alter Rebbe — and the Chassidus was on a whole new level! The Mitteler Rebbe’s Chassidus is called “Rechovas Hanahar” — the wideness of the river. His maamorim took the inyonim that the Alter Rebbe first taught, and explained them very well, with lots of long mashalim.
The Mitteler Rebbe’s maamorim are explaining the Alter Rebbe’s maamarim — but they are much longer! You can find maamorim in the Alter Rebbe’s Torah Ohr and Likutei Torah that are just a few pages long. When the Mitteler Rebbe explained these maamorim, they were TENS of pages long!
Today the Rebbe tells us that even the Mitteler Rebbe’s maamorim didn’t start off so long in the beginning. It took time! In the beginning, the Mitteler Rebbe said short maamorim. For example, he chazered a maamar of the Alter Rebbe that is printed in the “Siddur Im Dach,” on the posuk “Zecher Rav Tuvcha” (which is in today’s Tehillim). When he chazered it, it was in six parts, with some explanation, but only a little bit more than is printed in the siddur.
(If you look in the maamarim of the Mitteler Rebbe, you can see that in the first year he was Rebbe, there was a maamar “Zecher Rav Tuvcha,” which maybe is the maamar today’s Hayom Yom is speaking about!)
One of the things we can learn from this helps us in our avodah in Chodesh Elul. We can remember that we have a month to prepare, and we don’t have to do it all at once! It will take us time! At the beginning, our teshuvah might start out small, but it can get bigger and bigger and more and more until we are SURE we fixed up the past year and we’re ready for a Shana Tova Umesuka!
We also see this in the minhag of blowing the Shofar. We don’t start off right away tomorrow blowing the shofar perfectly, on the first day of Rosh Chodesh we practice. On the second day we will already be able to blow the shofar properly!
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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #322) is the same as yesterday’s — that a Beis Din is not allowed to punish anyone on Shabbos. We learn this mitzvah from the posuk that says, “You shouldn’t burn a fire on Shabbos.”
This is a posuk in Parshas Vayakhel: לֹא תְבַעֲרוּ אֵשׁ
Really, this posuk seems strange — we already know that we can’t burn a fire on Shabbos, because it’s one of the Lamed-Tes Melachos! The Mechilta explains that this is talking about one of the types of punishment, called Sereifah, that a Beis Din sometimes needs to give. We are not allowed to do this type of punishment, or any of the other punishments, on Shabbos.
The Talmud Yerushalmi says that we learn from the end of this posuk (“Bechol Moshvoseichem,” in all of your dwellings) that the Beis Din can’t judge at all on Shabbos
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Today’s perakim in Rambam are continuing to teach us about the melacha of Hotza’ah, carrying. We are not allowed to transfer things from one reshus (type of area) to another, or to carry things around inside of some of the reshuyos.
Perek Tes-Vov: We learn the halachos about when someone is in one reshus, and is moving something in a different reshus. For example, sticking your hand out through a window and drawing up water from a well.
Perek Tes-Zayin: We learn the halachos about what types of walls can surround an area to make it into a different type of reshus. (Halacha calls these walls mechitzos, and nowadays many people call it an “eruv.”)
Perek Yud-Zayin: In those days, most houses were inside of courtyards, and most courtyards were in an alleyway (mavui). We learn what needs to be done to the mavui to make it into a Reshus Hayochid. We also learn about pasim, small dividers that can sometimes act as a mechitza to make it into a different reshus.
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In this perek, we learn about different types of Avodah Zarah. In the beginning of the perek we learn the details of today’s mitzvos, about the Avodah Zarah of Ov, Yidoni, and Molech.
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Elul is the most important month of the whole year. Because during Elul, we think about what we did the whole year: We fix what needs to be fixed, we decide to do even more the things that were good. We have a whole month to do this, so when Rosh Hashana comes, Hashem will see that we are the way we should be and give us a good year!
The truth is, though, that this isn’t the only Cheshbon.
Every month, the day before Rosh Chodesh is called “Yom Kippur Katan,” when we make a cheshbon of what happened that whole month, so we’ll be ready for the new chayus of Hashem that comes with the new month!
Every week, before Shabbos (Thursday night), we make a Cheshbon to finish off the week and get ready for a new parsha in the Torah!
And every day, by Kriyas Shema She’Al Hamitah, we make a cheshbon of what happened that day, so we can finish off the Avodah of the day and get ready for the new Avodah of the next day!
Of course we don’t take SO much time during the year with the Cheshbon — we need to get things done! But in Elul we spend more time so we’ll be ready for a WHOLE NEW special chayus that will come in the new year!
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As we get ready to start the main part of Pesukei Dezimra, we say some pesukim and another kapitel of Tehillim.
We say the pesukim of Hashem Melech, how Hashem is the King of the world in the past, present, and future. When Moshiach comes, we will all be able to see the Malchus of Hashem in the world!
The Arizal teaches that this is a very special part of Tefillah, connected to the Ruchniyus world of Atzilus. That’s why even if you are in the middle of a different part of davening, it’s the minhag to stand with the minyan when they are saying these lines.
We finish off by asking Hashem, in Hosheinu, to take us out of Golus.
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There is an important rule about brachos: “Sofeik Brachos Lehokel.” That means that if there is a sofeik, a doubt about a bracha, we are not strict to say another bracha.
What does that mean?
The halachos about brachos can sometimes be complicated. In halacha, sometimes it is not clear if a person needs to say a certain bracha or not. This is called a sofeik, a doubt. In these cases, the Chachomim say, “Sofeik Brachos Lehokel!” Since by saying a bracha that maybe we don’t need to say, we are possibly saying Hashem’s name for no reason, we DON’T say the bracha that we are not sure about.
But this is only where there is a sofeik in the halacha. It doesn’t mean when WE are not sure about a bracha! If we aren’t sure what bracha to make, we need to go learn the halachos or ask someone who did! Only where the Chachomim weren’t sure about a bracha do we follow this rule.
See Birchos Hanehenin, perek Alef, se’if Gimmel and 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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We learned in today’s Chumash (Chamishi of Parshas Shoftim) that Hashem gives Yidden Neviim who will tell us the future, and that we should listen to them. One of the main things that the Neviim tell Yidden about is the Geulah that will come through Moshiach! They tell it to us so that our Emunah will be strong, and so that we will do what we need to in order to bring the Geulah sooner!
In our time, the Rebbe tells us that the Geulah is very near, and one of the things we need to do to prepare is to learn the parts of Torah which tell us about Geulah. According to this hora’ah, we have been learning the nevuos from Torah Shebichsav that tell us about the time of the Geulah. We are up to the part of Trei Asar by the Navi Amos.
At the end of his sefer, the Navi Amos tells us some beautiful nevuos about the Geulah!
In the last posuk of the sefer Amos, the Navi tells us that when Moshiach comes, it will be a Geulah that lasts FOREVER. There will never be another Golus!
Hashem promises:
וּנְטַעְתִּים עַל אַדְמָתָם וְלֹא יִנָּתְשׁוּ עוֹד מֵעַל אַדְמָתָם אֲשֶׁר נָתַתִּי לָהֶם אָמַר ה׳ אֱלֹקֶיךָ
Unetatim Al Admasam — I will “plant” the Yidden like a tree which doesn’t move, on their land.
Velo Yinaseshu Od — And they won’t be uprooted anymore
Me’al Admasam Asher Nasati Lahem — From their land which I gave them (meaning that they won’t ever be sent into Golus again)!
Amar Hashem Elokecha — So says Hashem Your Aibershter!
See Amos perek Tes posuk Tes-Vov
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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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