| |
|
CHUMASH
Parshas Noach - Rishon with Rashi
|
|
Hashem tells Noach to build a Teiva, which he does. Still, none of the people learn from what he is doing to do teshuvah.
This week’s parsha starts with the words “Eileh Toldos Noach,” “Noach’s children are…”
But instead of telling us the names of Noach’s children, first the Torah tells us that Noach is a tzadik! Because really, the good things we do are also like our children. The Torah tells us about these “children” — the Maasim Tovim — first!
Then the Torah tells us about his Gashmius children:
Noach had three sons: Sheim (he was the middle, but the most important one, like we’ll see later), Cham (the youngest), and Yafes (the oldest).
The Torah tells us how the world looked at that time.
1,536 years after Hashem made the world, the whole world was full of Resha’im. They didn’t get married in a holy way, they served Avodah Zarah, and everyone was stealing from each other. Hashem decided to bring a Mabul on the world.
Hashem told Noach to build a huge Teiva. He should build it himself, so it will take a long time! Noach will be able to talk to a lot of people who ask him what he is doing, and maybe some of them will do Teshuvah.
The Teiva should be made of Atzei Gofer, a kind of wood — warning people that the Mabul will be with water that is Gofris — polluted with sulfur! It will also need to be waterproof on the inside AND the outside since the water will be so strong.
The Teiva should be 300 Amos long, 50 Amos wide, and 30 Amos tall! Hashem asked Noach to make a Tzohar for the Teiva. Rashi says that this is either a window or a stone that will bring light. The door should be on the side of the Teiva, so water won’t rain in. The Teiva will have 3 floors — the top for Noach’s family, the middle for the animals, and the bottom floor for garbage.
Hashem warned Noach what would happen with the Mabul: “I’m going to agree with the Malachim who said not to make people! I am going to make a Mabul to destroy everything. The water will mix everything up, and everything will be underwater for a whole year and get rotten!” Hashem promised Noach that he would be OK though: The food in the Teiva won’t go bad, and nobody will kill Noach even when he says what he’s doing! His whole family will be saved — but they shouldn’t have any more children while they are on the Teiva.
Noach built the Teivah exactly the way Hashem told him to do.
|
| |
|
|
A gutten Chodesh! Today we are saying the last six kapitelach in the entire Tehillim!
These kapitelach are all part of Davening! They are the main part of Pesukei DeZimra, which the Chachomim set up to praise Hashem.
(If you look in the beginning of the kapitel, though, you won’t see the word Ashrei! The kapitel starts with the words Tehillah Ledovid, which is the THIRD posuk in our siddur. The pesukim that start with the word Ashrei are from other kapitelach — the first one is from Kapitel Pey-Daled, and the second one is at the end of yesterday’s Tehillim, in Kapitel Kuf-Mem-Daled.)
The most important posuk in Ashrei is “Poseiach Es Yodecha Umasbia Lechol Chai Ratzon” — we say that Hashem opens His Hand and gives everyone what they need. If you don’t have kavana in this posuk during davening, you need to go back and say it again! So when you say this part of Ashrei, remember to think about how Hashem gives every living thing whatever it needs.
|
| |
|
TANYA
Igeres Hakodesh Siman Chof-Hey
|
|
We are now learning how the Alter Rebbe explains a vort from the Baal Shem Tov.
The vort is that if a person is in the middle of davening, and someone comes and starts to talk to him and mix him up, he should realize that Hashem is giving him a message. He should think about how the Shechinah is in Golus inside of the words of the person who is bothering him, so that he will need to use MORE koach to have Kavana in davening!
It’s like Hashem is dressing up in a costume — it looks like something is RUINING our Kavana, but really Hashem is just trying to make our chayus in davening stronger!
If someone is falling asleep and they really need to be awake, one way you can wake them up is by taking a puppet and saying BOO! in their face. They’ll get scared and wake up. Sometimes when we daven, we are daydreaming and not really thinking about what we are saying to Hashem. So we shouldn’t get angry at whatever is bothering us, we should realize that Hashem is trying to get us to wake up and work harder to daven with Kavanah.
In today’s Tanya, the Alter Rebbe tells us that when a Yid says words of kedusha, like davening, then the Shechinah is in what he says!
Later we will learn about how the Shechinah is in Golus in the person who is bothering our davening.
|
| |
|
|
In today’s Hayom Yom, we learn some things which are important for us to know when we say Hallel on Rosh Chodesh:
1) When we say Hallel, there are a few pesukim that end with the words “Ki Le’olam Chasdo.” After each one of the pesukim, we say the first posuk again — “Hodu LaHashem Ki Tov, Ki Le’olam Chasdo!” We do this whether we are davening with a minyan or we are davening ourselves.
2) After Hallel on Rosh Chodesh, we say a posuk “VeAvraham Zakein,” followed by a tefillah that starts with the word “Zevadiah,” three times.
|
| |
|
|
In Sefer Hamitzvos, we learn (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #101) that we are not allowed to shecht an animal and its child on the same day. We are not even allowed to bring a mother and baby animal as korbanos on the same day!
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Emor: אֹתוֹ וְאֶת בְּנוֹ לֹא תִשְׁחֲטוּ בְּיוֹם אֶחָד
The details are explained in Mesechta Chulin perek Hey.
|
| |
|
|
Perek Gimmel: In today’s Rambam, we learn about the 5 things that a shochet has to be careful NOT to do — otherwise the animal he shechted isn’t kosher.
1) Shehiyah — stopping in the middle of shechting
2) Chaladah — shechting without being able to see the knife
3) Drasah — pushing down with the knife instead of going back and forth
4) Hagrama — shechting on the wrong part of the animal’s neck
5) Ikur — if the part that he is supposed to shecht moves before he finishes
Any animal that the shochet does one of these 5 things on is called a Neveilah, and we are not allowed to eat it.
Perek Daled: We learn about who is and isn’t allowed to shecht.
Perek Hey: We start to learn the halachos of tereifah, which we will learn the details of over the next few days.
|
| |
|
|
In this perek, we learn halachos about another type of brachos, called mitzvah-brachos, like the bracha for washing Netilas Yodayim, or the bracha for Tefillin. Usually we say the bracha before we do the mitzvah.
The Rambam finishes off this perek and section of halachos that you say as many brachos as you can, but you should be careful not to say brachos that are not necessary. Like Dovid Hamelech says in Tehillim, “Bechol Yom Avarcheka, Va’ahalela Shimcha Le’olam Va’ed.” “Every day I will bentch You, and I will praise Your name forever.” (This posuk is in today’s Tehillim!)
|
| |
|
|
In this week’s parsha, Parshas Noach, we learn about the Mabul Hashem sent on the world. The Torah calls the boiling water that covered the earth the “Mei Mabul,” the waters of the flood.
In this week’s Haftorah, though, from the Navi Yeshaya, we also hear about the Mabul. Hashem spoke to the Navi, and told him something about the Mabul in his nevuah. There, Hashem doesn’t call the water “Mei Mabul,” the water is called “Mei Noach,” the waters of Noach.
This seems strange! The name Noach means pleasant, so calling the water “Mei Noach” is like saying that the Mabul was pleasant!
Why does Hashem call the Mabul “Mei Noach” when speaking to the Navi?
The Rebbe tells us that when Hashem speaks to a Navi, Hashem is telling the Navi a secret, like the posuk says, “Gila Sodo El Avadav HaNeviim.” Hashem tells Neviim the secret that is behind what is happening, so that the Navi should see things the way they are inside, the pnimius.
When Hashem told Yeshaya about the Mabul, Hashem called it Mei Noach, pleasant water. Because the real reason for the Mabul WAS pleasant, and this is what Hashem wanted the Navi to know.
In Torah Ohr, the Alter Rebbe explains that Hashem didn’t need to send a flood if He wanted to destroy the world, Hashem could have just stopped creating it! Hashem sent a flood for a different reason: To make the world TAHOR. Just like a keili goes into a mikvah with 40 se’ah of water to become tahor, Hashem covered the earth with water for 40 days to make it tahor!
That is what Hashem was telling the Navi, that the “secret” of the Mabul, its real purpose, was to make the world tahor — and that is Mei Noach, something pleasant!
See Likutei Sichos chelek Chof, Parshas Noach, p. 286
|
| |
|
▼ Jump to Coloring Books & Downloads ▼
|
| |
|
|
Today is Rosh Chodesh!
In the Beis Hamikdash, extra korbanos would be brought on Rosh Chodesh. We say an additional tefillah, Musaf, for these korbanos.
In Musaf for Rosh Chodesh, we say the pesukim from the Torah that speak about the Korban Musaf for Rosh Chodesh. We ask Hashem to rebuild the Beis Hamikdash so we can again bring these korbanos, and bentch us with a good new month!
|
| |
|
|
There is a very old Minhag to learn one posuk from our Kapitel Tehillim every Rosh Chodesh. We learn the posuk with Rashi (and other Meforshim too, if we want!) We learn the pesukim in order, and try to finish learning the whole Kapitel by the end of the year.
If there are exactly 12 pesukim in your kapitel, then it’s easy to know how much to learn: If you learn one posuk each month, you will finish exactly at the end of the year! But if there are more than 12 pesukim, you should learn a few at a time to be able to finish, and if there are less than 12 pesukim, learn the same posuk again another month.
(You can find Tehillim in English, with Rashi, online on Chabad.org!)
|
|
לעילוי נשמת הרה״ח ר׳ דניאל יצחק ע״ה בן ר׳ אפרים שי׳ מאסקאוויץ
שליח כ"ק אדמו"ר נשיא דורנו למדינת אילינוי
|
| |
|
|
The Torah tells us that in the 600th year of Noach’s life, the gates of water from the sky and fountains of water from underground opened up and started to flood the world. This was the beginning of the Mabul.
The Zohar tells us that this posuk is also hinting to another 600th year — the 600th year of the 6th millennium. At this time, we will have another kind of flood — a flood of knowledge! In the year 5600, knowledge from above (meaning the secrets of Torah that are taught from Shomayim) and knowledge from underneath (meaning understanding more about the world) will start to pour out like a fountain. This knowledge will be a preparation for Moshiach!
We see that this happened — at around this time, new knowledge came into the world “from above”: This is the time when Chassidus Chabad started to spread out! We also got new knowledge “from below” — people started learning how to use machines to make things work easier and faster.
These things are part of the “flood of knowledge” that will get the world ready for Moshiach!
See Likutei Sichos chelek Tes-Vov p. 42ff.
|
| |
|
|
|
לע"נ התינוק זאב ארי' ע"ה בן יבלט"א הרה"ח ר' שניאור זלמן שי' גליק
נפטר ב' מנחם אב ה'תשע"ג
|
| |
Give children around the world the gift of Kids Chitas!
KidsChitas.org/sponsor
|
| |
|
