On behalf of those who learn from Chitas for Kids, thank you to our sponsors!

 
 

Those who make this year of learning possible:

 
 

לעילוי נשמת ר׳ יוסף בנימין בן ר׳ מנשה קאלטמאנן
~ by Rabbi Aryeh & Esther Kaltmann ~

a7691251-7218-4c6b-b94e-833d5d6032b4.png

לזכות רחל בת ראשא ראזע לרפואה שלימה וקרובה
~ by the Duchman Family ~

a7691251-7218-4c6b-b94e-833d5d6032b4.png

מוקדש לחיזוק ההתקשרות לכ״ק נשיא דורנו
ע"י ולזכות הרה"ת ר' לייביש משה וזוגתו מרת רינה ילדיהם קיילא באשא, בנציון דוד, אליהו איסר, רבקה שיינדל אלטא שיחיו גולדהירש

 
 
 

Those who make Chitas for the month of Shevat possible:

 
 

לעילוי נשמת הרה״ח הרה״ת הר׳ משה פינחס בן הר׳ אברהם מרדכי הכהן כ״ץ
הרה״ח הרה״ת הר׳ מרדכי בן הר׳ פינחס מענטליק
ולזכות רפואה שלימה וקרובה לזאב יחזקאל הכהן בן מינדל

The Kirstein Family
In honor of our Grammy, Bailie Botwick Kirstein obm.
May her memory help others connect to Yiddishkeit as she helped her grandson.

 
 

Click here to sponsor a day of Chitas!

70dad1ac-d962-49b2-ac0e-d0bafaebb537.png

CHUMASH

Parshas Yisro - Shlishi with Rashi

Yisro came to join the Yidden. When he saw Moshe Rabbeinu busy with the Yidden full time, he suggested that Moshe delegate some of the work to proper judges.

Moshe Rabbeinu asked Hashem whether Yisro’s suggestion was the right thing, and Hashem agreed that Yisro’s plan was good. So Moshe followed Yisro’s advice.

Moshe chose the best judges he could for the Yidden. The Yidden asked these judges their questions, and if it was a very hard question they brought it to Moshe.

Yisro stayed to watch Moshe setting up the judges, and then he decided to go back to Midyan to help the rest of his family become Yidden too.

5bafef1b-215f-4cfc-8300-88a68421ae5e.png

TEHILLIM

97 - 103

Today’s kapitelach are Tzadik-Zayin through Kuf-Gimmel.

Here are the first and last pesukim of today’s first kapitel:

ה׳ מָלָךְ תָּגֵל הָאָרֶץ יִשְׂמְחוּ אִיִּים רַבִּים

Hashem Malach Tageil Ha’aretz — When Hashem will show His malchus, the world will be happy

Yismechu Iyim Rabim — The many islands will be joyful!

And the last posuk:

שִׂמְחוּ צַדִּיקִים בַּה׳ וְהוֹדוּ לְזֵכֶר קָדְשׁוֹ

Simchu Tzadikim BaHashem — Be happy with Hashem, tzadikim

Vehodu Lezeicher Kadsho — And praise Hashem’s holy Name!

037aa44b-1c33-419d-a277-d7c77f06ce9a.png

TANYA

Likutei Amarim Perek Chof-Vov

In today’s Tanya, the Alter Rebbe tells us how important it is to serve Hashem with simcha!

We learned in the past few perakim a shorter way to serve Hashem with chayus. We just need to remind ourselves of the Ahavas Hashem we already have inside of us, the koach of Mesiras Nefesh, which will help us do whatever Hashem wants, even when it’s hard. But this won’t help us if we get depressed! It will be too easy for the Yetzer Hara to convince us that mitzvos are not worth the effort.

We see this even in Gashmius — when two people are fighting with each other, most of the time the stronger one will win. But if one of them is lazy or slow, he will get beaten even if he is the stronger one!

Really, our Yetzer Hara is the weaker one. We have so many kochos from Hashem, like this hidden Ahava, and the fact that Hashem will help us, that we often can easily overcome our Yetzer Hara! But if we are not in a good mood and besimcha, it will be much too easy for the Yetzer Hara to win chas veshalom.

It is true that sometimes it is appropriate to have merirus, to be upset about our Ruchnius situation, and we will be learning when and how later in Tanya. But this feeling of merirus is only at certain times and is only temporary, and makes us FIX our Ruchnius situation, so we will end up happier! Any other time, the ONLY way to stay in control and do what Hashem wants is through simcha!

Many times people would write to the Rebbe asking for an eitza to be happy. Sometimes the Rebbe would tell the person to look in the index (Mafteiach Inyonim) that he wrote on Tanya, and learn the parts where it talks about simcha. We are starting to learn this topic today, where we see how important it is for a Yid to be besimcha, and over the next few perakim the Alter Rebbe will first give us eitzos not to be depressed (atzvus), and then we will learn about two different types of simcha! (Just in time for Adar!)

b42fcb5b-5fe3-4e74-ab78-350fad9544ae.png

HAYOM YOM

Chof Shevat

Today’s Hayom Yom teaches us about our minhag in Netilas Yodayim before eating bread.

The Rebbe Rashab writes in one of his letters that our minhag is to wash our hands three times on each hand for Netilas Yodayim. (Some people do only two times, but it is a special hidur to pour water THREE times.)

The Rebbe Maharash would also do it this way, and would leave a little bit of water in his hand after pouring for the third time, to rub his hands together (shifshuf) after the bracha.

781f9885-f711-422d-b86a-13a300028852.png

SEFER HAMITZVOS

Shiur #208 - Mitzvas Lo Saasei #308, #307

Today we learn two mitzvos about Tzoraas:

1) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #308) We are not allowed to cut the hair or burn off the healthy skin of Tzoraas, to make it look like we don’t have the simanim of tumah.

We learn this from a posuk in Parshas Ki Seitzei: הִשָּׁמֶר בְּנֶגַע הַצָּרַעַת

2) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #307) We are not allowed to cut off the hair, which is a siman of tumah, from a kind of Tzoraas called a nesek, which is on the hair or beard.

We learn this from the posuk in Parshas Tazria: וְאֶת הַנֶּתֶק לֹא יְגַלֵּחַ

c74a2058-ec63-4c5a-9fa6-ed357d262a3f.png

RAMBAM

Hilchos Tumas Tzoraas

In today’s Rambam, we learn about the simanim of tumah for Tzoraas.

Perek Beis: This perek teaches us the halachos about the siman of tumah called “Se’ar Lavan,” white hair in the patch of Tzoraas.

Perek Gimmel: This perek teaches us the halachos about the siman of tumah called “Michya,” which is healthy skin inside the area of Tzoraas. Usually this makes a person Tomei, unless it is at one of the tips of the body — like the tips of the fingers.

Perek Daled: This perek teaches us about the siman of tumah called “Pisyon,” when the patch of Tzoraas gets bigger.

c74a2058-ec63-4c5a-9fa6-ed357d262a3f.png

RAMBAM PEREK ECHOD

Hilchos Ishus - Perek Beis

Many of the halachos in Hilchos Ishus are different if a person is an adult or not. Today the Rambam teaches us what the Torah considers an adult, and other words the Torah uses to describe a person.

2d0138b3-2f42-4850-9e91-db0057bde3f5.png

INYANA D'YOMA

Story the Rebbe Told Us

One night, when the Rebbe was in Vienna, he went into a shul to daven. While he was there, he put some money into a tzedakah pushka.

A knowledgable young man came over to him, and said, “How can you do such a thing? It says in Kisvei HoArizal not to give tzedakah at night!”

Later the Rebbe told the Frierdiker Rebbe what had happened. The Frierdiker Rebbe said, “That person probably doesn’t give tzedakah during the day either…”

The lesson the Rebbe learns from this is that sometimes when we want to do something good, people can say that we shouldn’t do it since we’re not doing it 100% right. But probably that’s because they aren’t doing enough themselves, not because of the excuses they are giving! So we should never let that stop us, and keep doing more good things, even if people tell us it’s not perfect!

▼ Jump to Coloring Books & Downloads ▼

f95ddc3e-2307-48f8-a76f-754d141db332.png

TEFILLAH

Birchas Hamazon - Nodeh

Listen to this:

“She has very good middos.”

“You have very good middos.”

Can you hear the difference?

Sometimes we talk ABOUT someone. Other times, we talk straight TO someone.

When we look at the first and second brachos of bentching, we see a big difference. In the first bracha, we are talking ABOUT Hashem. We say, “HU Nosein Lechem,” “HE gives bread;” and “UVETUVO Hagadol,” “with HIS great goodness.”

But in the second paragraph, we are talking TO Hashem. We say, “Nodeh LECHA,” “we thank YOU;” and “She’ATA Zan,” “that YOU give us food.”

Why do we switch?

The Alter Rebbe explains that the first paragraph of bentching is from when Hashem gave the Mahn, in the time of Moshe Rabbeinu in the Midbar. The Yidden at that time were able to see Hashem at the time of Kriyas Yam Suf, and also hear Hashem at Har Sinai! They were able to feel a very high level of Elokus!

Nowadays, though, that level is too high for us. We can talk ABOUT it, but we can’t feel it ourselves. So in a part of bentching connected to when the Yidden got the mahn, we speak ABOUT Hashem. We talk about the brachos HE gives us.

But the second part of bentching is connected to Yehoshua, at the time when the Yidden came into Eretz Yisroel. At this time, Hashem started giving brachos to the Yidden in a more natural way. This level of Elokus is much easier for us to feel! So when we are at this part of bentching, we can talk straight to Hashem. We say “Thank YOU Hashem for giving us Eretz Yisroel!”

See Torah Ohr Parshas Beshalach, Lehavin Inyan Lechem Mishna

548e317f-62f8-4b77-a809-78f2f54a6eae.png

HALACHOS HATZRICHOS

Kiddush Bemakom Seudah

The Chachomim teach us that Kiddush needs to be in connection with a meal, called “Kiddush Bemakom Seudah.” The Chachomim learn this from the posukVekarasa LeShabbos Oneg.”

When we make Kiddush, we should have in mind that we will be eating right afterwards. If someone wasn’t planning on eating right afterwards, he has only a very short time (Kedei Achilas Pras, like the amount of time we have to eat the shiur of matzah in) to start eating, or else he wasn’t yotzei the mitzvah of Kiddush!

Bedieved, if we were planning on eating our seudah, but weren’t able to right away, or had to interrupt because of something we needed for the seudah, we are still yotzei Kiddush.

We should be careful, though, not to leave the house, and try not to even go to a different part of the house before we start our seudah.

See Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch siman Reish-Ayin-Gimmel se’if Hey; Kitzur Halachos p. 178 fn. 10, from the Badei Hashulchan; and audio shiurim of Rabbi Farkash, halachos of Kiddush, tape 3

לעילוי נשמת הרה״ח ר׳ דניאל יצחק ע״ה בן ר׳ אפרים שי׳ מאסקאוויץ
שליח כ"ק אדמו"ר נשיא דורנו למדינת אילינוי

bb1bf02c-b765-412e-987c-1b80a6b4fabb.png

GEULAH U'MOSHIACH

Can We Really Do It?

In seforim of Mussar, there is a very interesting mashal that will help us understand how it is possible that we can bring the Geulah:

Who can see farther, a tall person or a short person? Of course, a tall person can see much farther. But if the short person stands on top of the tall person, then the short person can see even farther than the tall one!

This mashal helps us understand how our generation, which is not as special as the generations before, is able to bring Moshiach. We are like a midget, a very short person. But we are standing on top of a giant, on top of the work of the giants in the generations before us!

So even though we might not be as strong or as special, we have the koach of the Torah and mitzvos and Mesiras Nefesh of all of the Yidden of past generations. That is how even one little mitzvah of a Yid in our times can bring Moshiach now!

See Toras Menachem Hisvaaduyos 5742, chelek Gimmel p. 1290

Coloring Pages and Text Downloads
Booklet Format
Yiddish | Hebrew (A4) | English | Français (A4)
Individual Page Format
Yiddish | Hebrew (A4) | English | Français (A4)
Printable Chitas Summary Text
English | Hebrew (A4)
Glossary
English

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