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CHUMASH
Parshas Vayeitzei - Shvi'i with Rashi
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Lavan and Yaakov make a promise not to hurt each other, and Lavan says goodbye to his children and grandchildren.
Lavan said to Yaakov, “You didn’t have to sneak away! I would never do anything to hurt any of you. They are MY daughters, and MY grandchildren! Let’s make a bris — a promise between us. We will promise not to hurt each other, and Hashem will be the witness.”
Yaakov took a stone to be a matzeivah — a monument, and the family all helped bring stones to make a pile. Yaakov and Lavan both called it “the pile of witnessing” — but Lavan named it in Aramaic (Yegar Sahadusa), and Yaakov said it in Hebrew (Gal-Eid). They also called it “Mitzpah” (the watchtower) to remember that Hashem should watch them both to make sure they are keeping their promise!
What’s the promise?
Yaakov promised not to be mean to Lavan’s daughters, and not marry anyone else (since it might make them upset). They both promised that they wouldn’t pass the place of the pile to hurt each other.
Even though Lavan didn’t help make the pile, he said that it was the pile that HE made, and the matzeivah that HE made!
Lavan promised in the name of Hashem and in the names of his Avodah Zarah, and Yaakov promised in the name of Hashem.
Then Yaakov shechted animals, and they ate a seudah together. Everyone slept on the mountain that night!
In the morning, Lavan kissed his children and grandchildren, and blessed them before he went home.
Yaakov went further to Eretz Yisroel, and the malachim of Eretz Yisroel came to meet him and bring him back! When Yaakov saw them, he said, “This is Hashem’s camp!” He called the place Machanayim (twin camps), because there were now two sets of malochim, the ones that brought him there, and the ones from Eretz Yisroel that would bring him in!
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Today’s shiur Tehillim is kapitelach Samach-Vov, Samach-Zayin, and Samach-Ches.
In today’s Tehillim, we have a posuk that says “Boruch Hashem Yom Yom” — “blessed is Hashem, Who gives us so much chesed every day!” Why does it say “Yom” (day) twice?
Each one is for one of the ways we serve Hashem every day! The first “yom” is the kedusha things, like doing mitzvos and learning Torah. The second “yom” is the regular things we do, like eating and sleeping and playing. Those things can and should also be used for Hashem!
In the Gemara, we see that Hillel Hazakein used to say that this posuk teaches us bitachon: If we find a fancy or special food, we don’t have to save it for Shabbos — we can use it today! Hashem will for sure give us new brachos tomorrow, with something else special for Shabbos.
The Maggid teaches us that this posuk tells us another reason we don’t have to save it for Shabbos: A person might think that nice food can only be used on Shabbos, when eating is a mitzvah. But we learn from this posuk that “Boruch Hashem YOM YOM” — BOTH ways of serving Hashem are special! We can also use a nice food on a regular day in a way that will make Hashem happy.
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TANYA
Kuntres Acharon Siman Daled
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In today’s Tanya, we finish this long pilpul to understand why doing a mitzvah or learning halachos is more special than just having kavana.
One of things that we learn is that malochim are called with the name of Hashem when they are doing a shlichus (a mission) for Hashem! When Torah is being learned in this world, WE become Hashem’s shluchim to bring Torah into the world — we are also called with the name of Hashem! So the halachos we learn have all of the koach of Hashem to make the world a holy place!
But there is a difference between neshamos and malochim: Malochim can come very close to Hashem, but only neshamos can bring the light of Hashem in the world!
Learning Torah in a way of pilpul (which we just did for the last few days) is a special present we got from Hashem when we got the second luchos! With just the first luchos, we would only be able to learn about the mitzvos. With the second luchos, Hashem gave us an opportunity to reach a much deeper part of Torah by working hard to try to understand something in Torah, in a way of pilpul!
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The bracha that a Tatty says when his son has a Bar Mitzvah is called Baruch Shepetarani. We say it without Hashem’s name, and only say it when we read the Torah, but it doesn’t have to be only on Shabbos.
We learn from the Baal Shem Tov: If we hear someone saying something not nice about another person, we should feel very bad, even if we don’t know who they are talking about!
Because either they are saying something true, and then it should bother us that the person is not the way he should be, or it’s NOT true, and then we should be very bothered to hear that a person would say something not true and not nice about someone else!
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Today we learn two mitzvos, about two kinds of firstborns — firstborn baby boys, and firstborn donkeys! Both of these are presents Hashem said we need to give to the Kohanim because they work in the Beis Hamikdash.
1) (Mitzvas Asei #80) Pidyon HaBen: We need to give our firstborns as presents to Hashem! We don’t actually give them the firstborn, instead we redeem the firstborn — giving money to the kohen and keeping the firstborn ourselves. For a firstborn baby boy we pay the Kohen 5 sela’im. The father is the one who has the chiyuv to do this mitzvah. (We start learning about this in the third perek of today’s Rambam!)
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Mishpatim: בְּכוֹר בָּנֶיךָ תִּתֶּן לִי
The details are explained in Mesechta Bechoros.
2) (Mitzvas Asei #81) Peter Chamor: A firstborn donkey also belongs to Hashem! For a firstborn boy donkey, we give the kohen a sheep instead, or pay what the donkey is worth. Leviim don’t have to give their firstborns to Hashem. (We learn about this mitzvah in the first perek of tomorrow’s Rambam.)
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Ki Sisa: וּפֶטֶר חֲמוֹר תִּפְדֶּה בְשֶׂה
The details are explained in Mesechta Bechoros.
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In today’s Rambam, we learn about more presents that we need to give to the Kohen.
Perek Tes: There are parts of each animal we shecht that are “Matanos” — given as a present to the kohanim. (This was yesterday’s Sefer Hamitzvos.) We learn which kinds of animals we need to give Matanos from, and what happens if we aren’t sure if they were given.
Perek Yud: We give the kohen part of the wool of a sheep the first time we cut its hair, called Reishis HaGeiz (yesterday’s Sefer Hamitzvos). This mitzvah makes sure that the kohanim will have wool to make clothes!
Perek Yud-Alef: The Rambam teaches us about the mitzvah of Pidyon HaBen, paying the kohen so we can keep our firstborn boys. We do this mitzvah after the baby is thirty days old.
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In this perek, we learn more about an Eruv Chatzeiros. An Eruv Chatzeiros shows that even though there are many families in a certain place, they are joining together as one group. If a few families live in an apartment building, they might need this kind of eruv to carry in the hallways.
How do we make an Eruv Chatzeiros? Everyone gives some food, and then one person makes a bracha “Al Mitzvas Eruv” and then says that everyone can carry things from one person’s house to another.
In this perek, we learn more about who needs to join in making this Eruv. Sometimes people are counted as one family, and they don’t need an Eruv at all! But if even one person refuses to join the Eruv, then nobody at all is allowed to carry.
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In Tof-Reish-Tzadik-Gimmel, on Yud-Beis Kislev (today!) something very special happened:
It was late at night, and the Frierdiker Rebbe had a dream. In the dream, his father, the Rebbe Rashab came to him and said, “Why are you feeling sad? It’s shining bright in your house at night!”
The Frierdiker Rebbe woke up, and saw the moon shining through his window. But he understood that that wasn’t what the Rebbe Rashab was talking about! So he got up and walked around the house to see what was making his house so bright.
When he came to the library, he saw the Rebbe sitting and learning.
The Frierdiker Rebbe later called the Rebbe and told him about this dream!
One of the lessons we can learn from this is that it’s not just enough to learn Torah, but we need to learn Torah in a way that it will light up the world! How do we do this? When we learn the Rebbe’s Torah and do our shlichus to teach other Yidden too, we can be sure that the Torah we learn will shine!
See Reshimos Choveres Samach-Tes
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In some places, Chassidus says that the main part of davening is Kriyas Shema and the rest is an explanation of it.
But in other places, it says that the main part of davening is Shemoneh Esrei, and the rest of davening is just a hachana for it.
The Rebbe explains how they are BOTH true!
There are two parts of us that come to daven: Our Nefesh Habehamis, and our Nefesh Elokis. What we try to do during davening is to start to want what Hashem wants!
For our Nefesh Elokis, wanting Ruchnius is easy. But that’s not all Hashem wants us to do. Hashem wants us to use its kochos IN THE WORLD, with Gashmius! During davening, the Nefesh Elokis needs to want to use the Gashmius, like Hashem wants. So for the Nefesh Elokis, the main part of davening is Shemoneh Esrei, where we ask Hashem for all of the Gashmius’dike things we need to do to be able to fulfill our shlichus in the world.
For our Nefesh Habehamis, wanting Gashmius is easy. But that’s not all Hashem wants! It needs to want to become close to Hashem, too! So for the Nefesh Habehamis, the main part of davening is Shema. In Shema, we think about how there is nothing except for Hashem, that we love Hashem, and that we are ready to even have Mesiras Nefesh to do what Hashem wants from us.
So, for the Nefesh Habehamis (and the Guf), the main part of davening is Kriyas Shema. For the Nefesh Elokis (the neshama), the main part of the davening is Shemoneh Esrei.
Reshimos Kuf-Nun-Ches
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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
- The very first bracha in Shmoneh Esrei
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
שליח כ"ק אדמו"ר נשיא דורנו למדינת אילינוי
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When the Rambam writes what will happen in the times of the Geulah, the Rambam writes that first Moshiach will fight the wars of Hashem and win; afterwards he will build the Beis Hamikdash; and then he will gather the Yidden — Kibbutz Galuyos.
We see that even before we have a Beis Hamikdash, we will already not have any problems with the goyim around us!
The truth is that this is possible even in Golus. The nations of the world can be afraid of the Yidden, and not want to bother us. The Medrash tells us how this can happen: K’SheHaKol Kol Yaakov BeBatei Knesios U’beBatei Midrashos, Ein Yedei Esav Sholtos. “When there is a voice of Yaakov learning and davening in the shuls and Yeshivos, then Eisav won’t be able to bother Yidden!”
Maamar Asara B’Teves 5738, Likutei Sichos vol. 20, p. 350
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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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