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CHUMASH
Parshas Tetzaveh - Shvi'i with Rashi
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Today we learn about the golden Mizbeiach used for the Ketores.
Hashem tells Moshe that the Yidden should make a Mizbeiach for burning the Ketores. It should be made of wood, and covered with gold. This Mizbeiach was less than 3 feet tall, and less than 1.5 feet wide. It had rings on the side for poles to carry it.
The big copper Mizbeiach was in the Chatzer, by the Mishkan, but this golden Mizbeiach went in the Kodesh, inside the Mishkan.
The Mizbeiach Hazahav was very holy! It was only used for two things: To burn the Ketores in the morning and afternoon, and to put some of the blood of the Yom Kippur korban on it. We aren’t allowed to use it for anything else!
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Kapitel Ayin-Ches tells us about all of the nisim Hashem did for the Yidden, from Yetziyas Mitzrayim until Dovid Hamelech became a king over the Yidden!
The fifth posuk says “Vayakem Eidus BeYaakov, VeSora Sam BeYisroel” — Hashem gave the Torah to the Yidden, “Asher Tziva Es Avoseinu Lehodiam Livneihem,” — in order to teach their children.
The kapitel also tells us the mistakes the Yidden made which are spoken about in the Torah. These teach us the right way to behave, so we won’t make the same mistakes again.
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Lamed-Daled
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Wow, was it an amazing Purim! We noshed, we dressed up, did silly things, and were so happy that Hashem saved the Yidden! That’s a real simcha!
But then Purim ends. How will we feel today?
Whenever we have simcha, we have to ask, “Then what?”
We just learned in Tanya about the simcha of “Yismach Yisroel Be’Osav” — the tremendous simcha we have that we are able to give Hashem nachas and make Him feel comfortable in the world!
First we learned to use our simcha to make us decide that we want to learn more Torah. Because what makes us happy? Thinking about how Hashem is always with us!
So to feel that even more, we should learn Torah (especially halacha) because Hashem isn’t hiding in Torah, and we can feel that Hashem is with us when we are learning!
We want to have this feeling ALL day, not only during the time we are learning Torah. How do we have this? Here are two ways!
1) Make a hachlata that if Hashem gives us more time to learn Torah, we will use it!
2) During the rest of the day, we’re busy with regular things like eating or sleeping, or working on parnasa. We should also make it a Mishkan for Hashem by using the chayus of our food or sleep to do our avodah, or give tzedakah with the money we earn!
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In the last few perakim in Tanya, we learned how we can bring simcha into our lives! We can think about how Hashem is always with us, and how Hashem has nachas from our avodah!
Now the Alter Rebbe tells us that this doesn’t stop us from being humble and recognizing how we are not perfect.
The Zohar tells a story that R’ Shimon bar Yochai revealed the secrets of the Torah about the Churban Beis Hamikdash to R’ Elazar his son.
When R’ Elazar heard these secrets, he cried. He explained that from one side of his heart he is crying about the Churban, and from the other side of his heart he is happy about the secrets of the Torah he is hearing.
From this we see that a person can have different feelings in his heart at the same time, if they are from different reasons! The same is true with what we learned in Tanya about simcha!
We can be happy because we are making a Dira BeTachtonim, and Hashem is with us all the time! At the same time, we are disappointed only in our guf and Nefesh Habehamis, that we know that we can do better. This way we can be humble and full of simcha at the same time!
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The Hayom Yom was written for a year where there were TWO Adars (a Shana Me’uberes). This year there is only ONE Adar (a Shanah Peshutah), so we learn BOTH Hayom Yoms every day!
Tes-Vov Adar Alef
We don’t say Tachanun, also on Shushan Purim Katan!
Chabad Minhagim: Before we make a Hamotzi, we scratch the bread with the knife, but are careful not to cut the bread. We say “Savri Maranan” before the bracha, even if we’re making Kiddush on Challah.
The Navi Chabakuk says that when Moshiach comes, rocks and wood will talk! Now, they don’t say anything. You can step on them, and they are quiet.
But there will come a time when the wood and stones will have a complaint, if a person stepped on them without saying or thinking words of Torah! The ground is waiting for thousands of years, and being stepped on by animals and people. It is waiting for a Yid or two to pass by and say words of Torah! And if he doesn’t, the ground is very upset! It will say to the person, “You are also like an animal!”
Once, the Alter Rebbe went for a walk with the Tzemach Tzedek, outside of Liozhna. He told the Tzemach Tzedek a story:
The Baal Shem Tov once was with his talmidim in the field. He told them to stand in a circle, and each of them should put their hands on the shoulders of the ones standing next to them. When the circle was complete, they suddenly saw many Yidden davening with their talleisim.
The Baal Shem Tov told his students, “These are from the tefillos that were davened here over 300 years ago.” He added that it’s not the actual tefillos, since the tefillos went up to Hashem. It is just a reshima, a mark that is left over from something in kedusha.
The Frierdiker Rebbe said this story in a sicha, and he added: If we would know what we accomplish, and the reshima we leave, from saying a posuk of Chumash or Tehillim wherever we are, we would be totally different, and we wouldn’t go around without Torah.
(Story from Sefer Hasichos Tof-Reish-Tzadik-Vov p. 151)
Tes-Vov Adar Sheini
The Rebbe Maharash explained that the Mitteler Rebbe’s maamorim were each written for different types of Chassidim! But there are two seforim that were written for ALL Chassidim: Shaar Hayichud and Shaarei Orah.
Shaar Hayichud is the “key to Chassidus,” and Shaarei Orah is the “Alef-Beis of Chassidus.”
Shaarei Orah is a sefer with maamarim about the Mesiras Nefesh of Yidden on Chanukah and Purim!
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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Asei #99) is about the Tumah of Niddah. This is a kind of tumah that a woman can have.
Even though this kind of tumah, and some of the other kinds of tumah we will learn about, are kept in certain ways nowadays, in these halachos we are learning about how someone with these kinds of tumah makes other people or things tomei. These halachos are only kept when there is a Beis Hamikdash.
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more about how keilim become tomei and pass on their tumah to things inside of them:
In Perek Yud-Beis the Rambam explains what happens if a keili became tomei, then was broken (so now those pieces are tahor), and then someone put those pieces back together. If the keili was made of wood, or bone, or leather, the new keili is tahor. If it was made of metal, it is still tomei.
Perek Yud-Gimmel teaches us about the tumah that is passed on with keilim made of clay. Usually the halacha is that if something is touching a tomei keili, it becomes tomei too. But with a clay keili, something touching the outside won’t become tomei. Only something that is INSIDE of it, whether or not it is touching it, will become tomei. For example, if you have an oven made out of clay, and something fell inside and made the oven tomei, everything inside becomes tomei too!
Perek Yud-Daled explains one of the ways to keep tumah from spreading. If you fill a pot with food and then seal it closed, and put it into a tomei oven, the pot and the food stays tahor. But if you put something that GIVES tumah inside of a pot and seal it closed, it can still make the whole oven tomei.
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One very important halacha is that a man needs to WANT to give the get. If he doesn’t want to, but he needs to, the Beis Din is allowed to hit him until he says “I want to!”
But if you hit someone until they say yes, they don’t really want it!
The Rambam tells us that really EVERY Yid wants to do all the mitzvos. Sometimes our Yetzer Haras trick us and try to get us not to do the right thing, but really we DO want to do the right thing. When the Beis Din hits the man, his Yetzer Hara becomes weak, and the Yid realizes that he DOES want to do it.
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Today is Shushan Purim! Usually in Yerushalayim, they would celebrate Purim TODAY, and dress up and read the Megillah and give Shalach Manos and Matanos La’evyonim and eat the seudah!
Since this year it is Shabbos, in Yerushalayim they do some mitzvos before Shabbos (Megillah and Matanos L’evyonim), some today (saying Ve’al Hanisim and leining the Purim Kriyas HaTorah), and some on Sunday (giving Shalach Manos and having the seudah).
Halacha teaches us that Yidden EVERYWHERE should do things to make us happier on Shushan Purim as well! In fact, all of us really belong in Yerushalayim, and by celebrating on Shushan Purim, we show our achdus with the Yidden there.
The Rebbe tells us to learn extra Torah (because Torah makes us happy, like we learned in Tanya!) and do things to make other Yidden happy!
See Hamaaseh Hu Ha’ikar
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In the Purim farbrengen in 5718, the Rebbe told a story that the Frierdiker Rebbe said at a Purim farbrengen 22 years before, in Otvotzk in 5696:
One of the Alter Rebbe’s chassidim was a simple Yid. He didn’t know very much Chassidus, in fact he didn’t even know Lashon Kodesh very well — he might not even have understood all of the words in davening. Still, he would daven for a long time every single day, Shacharis, Mincha, and Maariv!
The other Chassidim wondered how he could daven so long. You could tell that he wasn’t pretending to have kavana, he really was davening with his whole heart!
When they asked this chossid, he answered, “I don’t know. All I can tell you is that I heard a vort from my Rebbe (the Alter Rebbe), that ‘Shamor Vezachor Bedibur Echad.’
This is part of Lecha Dodi. It means, “Shamor and Zachor were said in one dibur — together.” The word Zachor comes from the Aseres Hadibros, which we read in Parshas Yisro, “Zachor Es Yom HaShabbos Lekadsho,” “Remember the Shabbos day to keep it holy.” But when Moshe Rabbeinu reviews the Aseres Hadibros in Parshas Va’eschanan, he uses a different word — SHAMOR Es Yom HaShabbos Lekadsho, that you should guard (be careful with) the day of Shabbos to keep it holy.
The Gemara says that Hashem said both of these words (Zachor and Shamor) at the exact same time!
The Alter Rebbe explained a deeper meaning of this Maamar Chazal: We need to Zachor and Shamor — remember and be careful with — the Echad that is in every Dibur, to think about and remember the Achdus Hashem in every part of the Creation, made by the words of Hashem.
This simple chossid davened thinking about this vort for forty years!
In that sicha, the Frierdiker Rebbe said that we can see how a vort by Chassidim does not get wasted.
After telling this story, the Rebbe continued: Some people complain that they can’t work on davening like a chossid. They say that it’s too hard for them. We see from this story that even if you don’t understand very much Chassidus, and even if you don’t understand every word of davening, you can still daven with Avodah! This one vort from the Alter Rebbe is enough to daven with for forty years.
See Likutei Sichos vol. 14, p. 224
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Even if we’re not in Yerushalayim, we don’t say Tachanun on Shushan Purim! We also increase in joy and celebration today.
In many sichos, the Rebbe would say that if we missed doing something on Purim, we should make up for it on Shushan Purim.
On Purim, we were supposed to start learning the halachos about Pesach, since it is 30 days before Pesach, and the halacha is to start to study about the Yom Tov 30 days before.
So let’s make up for it now, and learn some of the halachos about Pesach!
Starting from Purim, we don’t eat matzah, so that we will be excited to eat it at the seder.
Since it is 30 days before Pesach, we should start thinking about Maos Chitim, making sure that all Yidden have what they need for Yom Tov. We should also start thinking about Mivtza Matzah, making sure that Yidden get Shmurah Matzah for Pesach!
Starting from today, we should start being careful with chometz. We should make sure that we don’t make sticky or big chometz messes that will be hard to clean for Pesach.
From the Crown Heights Beis Din newsletter, page 30
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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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R’ Yitzchok ben Eliezer said: You should know that when Moshe Rabbeinu made the Mishkan and all of the keilim, did all the melacha and brought the korbanos, the Shechinah did not come rest in the Mishkan. The Shechinah did not come down until they brought the Ketores!
Hashem told the Yidden: “My children, be careful with the ketores, even more than with all of the other korbanos. With the ketores, you have a kapara in this world, and also Le’asid Lavo, when Moshiach comes!”
See Chumash Torah Sheleimah parshas Tetzaveh, p. 247
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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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