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CHUMASH
Parshas Tazria-Metzora - Revi'i with Rashi
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We are finishing what we learned yesterday about Tzoraas on clothes:
If a person sees bright red or bright green spots on a piece of clothing, he needs to show them to the kohen. The kohen tells him to put the clothing away for a week, and then looks at it again.
If after a week the spot didn’t get bigger, the person has to wash it and put it away for another week.
After the second week, the Kohen looks at the clothes again. If the spot didn’t change, it is Tzoraas and needs to be burned.
If the spot got lighter, the person cuts out the part with the spot and burns it, and the rest of the clothing is okay. But if spots come back in other parts of the clothing, the whole thing needs to be burned.
If the spot went away, the person dips the clothing in the Mikvah and it becomes tahor.
This is the end of the mitzvah of tzoraas on clothes.
Now we start Parshas Metzora. (Whenever we have a double parsha, the aliyah of Revi’i connects both parshios.) We learn about how a Metzora (a person with Tzoraas) becomes tahor:
After the kohen sees that the Tzoraas went away, the Metzora needs to do these things to become tahor:
Here are the things he needs:
- two birds
- a bowl of water (the kind of water that can be used for a Mikvah)
- a branch from a cedar tree
- a piece of red wool
- a kind of plant called an Eizov
- a korban of 3 lambs, flour, and oil
Here’s what he needs to do:
1) The kohen shechts one of the birds over the bowl of water.
2) The kohen sprinkles the Metzora with water using the branch, the wool, and the Eizov.
3) The second bird gets sent away.
4) The Metzora shaves off all of his hair.
5) The Metzora puts his clothes in the Mikvah.
6) The Metzora goes himself to the Mikvah.
7) The Metzora brings his korbanos to the Beis Hamikdash. (He can’t bring them INSIDE, though, since he is still tomei! He just brings them to the kohen, who will bring them inside and give them to Hashem.)
8) The kohen brings the korbanos on the Mizbeiach.
9) The kohen smears some blood from the korban onto the Metzora’s right ear, thumb, and big toe.
10) The kohen sprinkles some oil near the Kodesh Hakodoshim
11) The kohen smears oil onto the Metzora’s right ear, thumb, and big toe.
12) The kohen puts the rest of the oil onto the Metzora’s head
13) The kohen brings the rest of the korbanos.
…And once the Metzora does ALL of the things it says in the Torah, he becomes tahor!
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In one of today’s kapitelach, the posuk says: “Hashem Tzadik Yivchan.” Hashem tests a tzadik.
This means that Hashem only tests a person if he’s like a tzadik — if he has the kochos to do the right thing and pass the test!
So why does Hashem test us if He already KNOWS we can pass the test?
Imagine there is a little boy who is really a very good writer, but he doesn’t know it. He is good at finding the right words to express his thoughts in a way that is easy for others to understand. But this little boy has no idea what a special koach he has — because he never needed to write anything except for the one word answers on his quizzes!
Now imagine that one day his teacher says that all of the boys in class need to write a two-page report on something from Tanya that helps them do mitzvos better each day. At first this boy kvetches like everyone else that his hand will hurt from writing such a long report! But once he starts writing the report, he sees that he actually LIKES thinking of the right words to use. He sees that his report is easy to understand. His teacher is impressed too, and gives him a special bonus prize for his beautiful report!
We are ALL like that little boy. We have special kochos too, that nobody knows about — not even us! Hashem sets up special tests that might look and feel very hard… but really they are to help us start using our special hidden kochos.
For example, Hashem might test us by giving us an annoying little sister — to show us how much patience we really have. Or by making our mommy forget to wash our favorite shirt — because we have a very strong koach for Kibbud Av Va’em and won’t talk in a chutzpadik way. Or one day it might be very hard for us to find where we put the Chitas — so we can realize how much we really love learning Chitas!
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Mem-Daled
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We learned about two kinds of loving Hashem so far. One of them is Ahava Rabbah, a fiery kind of love that Hashem can give a person as a present. The other one is Ahavas Olam, where a person thinks about Hashem until he loves Hashem Who is the source of all life and of the things he enjoys.
Since both of those kinds of love come from hisbonenus, thinking and learning about Hashem, every person will feel the love differently, based on what they know.
But there is a kind of love that is “Shoveh Lechol Nefesh” — a love that works for everyone!
This kind of love isn’t based on thinking or learning or knowing — it is a kind of love that is part of our neshama, passed down from the Avos. This kind of ahava is called “Nafshi Ivisicha” — “I feel that Hashem is my chayus, and that’s why I want to be close to Hashem.”
When a person realizes that Hashem is his chayus, he wants to be close to Hashem to have that chayus!
A person’s greatest love and pleasure is to have his chayus, to be alive. But a person only feels it when it’s a new thing, like if chas veshalom a person was very sick and almost lost his chayus — then he really appreciates it. When we recognize that Hashem is constantly giving us new chayus, it will be our greatest pleasure!
We also know we can connect to this chayus through learning Torah, which Hashem always gives us in a new way, so this ahava makes us want to learn MORE Torah and feel this special chayus every day!
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Today is seventeen days of the Omer!
Today is the birthday of the Rebbe Maharash!
When the Rebbe Maharash was seven, his father, the Tzemach Tzedek, once tested him on what he was learning.
The Rebbe Maharash did so well, his melamed was very impressed! He said to the Tzemach Tzedek, “Wow, look how well he did!”
The Tzemach Tzedek told the Melamed that the Rebbe Maharash was born on a very special day in Sefiras Haomer, Tiferes SheBeTiferes. Tiferes is a beautiful midah, and Tiferes SheBeTiferes is this special midah in a beautiful way that people can see!
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Today we will learn the same mitzvah again (Mitzvas Asei #236)! If a person hurts someone else, he has to make up for what he did by paying him for the five kinds of things he damaged: That now he is worth less money because he is handicapped, that it hurt him, for the doctor bills, for the time he couldn’t work, and that he was embarrassed. A Beis Din decides how much money needs to be paid for each of these things.
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In today’s Rambam, we learn about how to be a good neighbor according to Torah.
In Perek Zayin, we learn about a person’s right to have a window. We can’t tell another person to block off his window so he won’t look at us, if he had his window there first. We also can’t block his window by building a wall of our house too close.
Perek Ches teaches us about when a person can build something that reaches out over his neighbor’s yard, like a porch. If his neighbor knew about it and didn’t stop him, the neighbor can’t change his mind later. But building a sukkah doesn’t prove anything, unless it stays up for a whole month after Sukkos, because everyone knows that a sukkah isn’t meant to stay!
In Perek Tes, the Rambam tells us when we need to leave extra space to make sure we don’t ruin something belonging to our neighbor. For example, if we build a tub for laundry, we have to build a strong one, and at least 3 tefachim away from our neighbor’s wall, so that the water won’t leak out and ruin his wall.
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This perek teaches us how we know someone is a kohen!
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Today is the birthday of the Rebbe Maharash!
The Rebbe Maharash had a saying: “Di velt zogt, az men ken nit arunter, geit men ariber. Un ich zog az Lechat’chila Ariber!”
People say that if there is something in your way, first try to work around it. If that doesn’t work, just ignore the problem and keep going where you need to go!
But the Rebbe Maharash says, “go over it right away!”
The Rebbe Maharash is teaching us what to do when something is stopping us from doing what Hashem wants us to. It doesn’t matter whether this is from our own Yetzer Hara, or it is something ELSE. We might think we should try to figure out why it’s blocking us, and maybe decide not to do it after all. NO! We should just do what we need to do, and not spend time on what’s stopping us.
When we act in a way of Lechat’chila Ariber, we will be thinking about our shlichus, not all of the problems that come up. We will be able to get much more done, and bring Moshiach now!
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We are learning the meaning of the Yud-Beis Pesukim, the 12 pesukim and maamorei Chazal that the Rebbe wanted every Jewish child to know. Many people say these pesukim every day after davening or after saying Shema at night, so that they know the words well! But it’s not enough to know the words by heart, we need to know what the pesukim mean, and what their lessons are for us!
The second posuk of the Twelve Pesukim starts with the words “Shema Yisroel.” Shema Yisroel means “Listen, Yisroel.” As we learned yesterday, this posuk comes from the Chumash.
In the Chumash, Moshe Rabbeinu is telling the Yidden to listen. “Listen Yidden! Hashem is our Aibershter, Hashem is one!”
But who are WE talking to? Who are WE telling to listen?
Chassidus teaches that we are speaking to our neshama, which is also called Yisroel. We tell it, “Shema, Yisroel!” “Neshama, you need to understand!” (Shema can also mean to understand.)
What does the neshama need to understand?
That “Hashem Elokeinu!” “Hashem is our Aibershter and our chayus!”
How does the neshama understand this? From the neshama itself — that we know that Hashem blew the neshama inside of us and gives us life!
And,”Hashem Echod!”
“Hashem is One — everything is one with Hashem, and there is nothing aside for Hashem!”
Sefer Halikutim Tzemach Tzedek os Kuf, p. 226
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It’s been a month since we said Tachanun in davening. We didn’t say any Tachanun the entire month of Nisan, and we don’t say Tachanun on Rosh Chodesh, so today is the first day we say Tachanun again.
The main part of Tachanun is the section of davening, right after Shemoneh Esrei. We tell Hashem that we are ready to do teshuvah for the things we did that we realize were not the way they should be. We ask Hashem to accept the tefillos we just said.
As part of davening on a day we say Tachanun, we klap (gently bang) our heart during Shemoneh Esrei, in the bracha of Selach Lanu, where we ask Hashem to forgive us. We klap by the words Chatanu and Fashanu, where we say we did aveiros.
We also say Kapitel Chof in davening again, before Uva Letzion and Kapitel Pey-Vov (Tefillah LeDovid) before Shir Shel Yom.
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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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On Beis Iyar, Tof-Shin-Beis, during World War II, the Frierdiker Rebbe started a special Sefer Torah called the Moshiach Sefer Torah. After the Moshiach Sefer Torah was finished, on Yud Shevat Tof-Shin-Lamed, the Rebbe explained why a Sefer Torah is especially connected with Moshiach!
Nowadays, we have many seforim. We have Medrash, Gemara, Halacha, Chassidus, and much more! These are the seforim explaining the Torah Shebaal Peh, which Moshe Rabbeinu got on Har Sinai, but were not allowed to be written down then. Moshe Rabbeinu taught them to the Yidden, and they were passed down to the next generations. Only the Sefer Torah was allowed to be written down, everything else needed to be learned by heart.
Later, the Chachomim were afraid that the Yidden would start forgetting the Torah Shebaal Peh, and it needed to be written down. All of the seforim we have are because we are in Golus, where people can forget things.
But when Moshiach comes, we won’t forget anything anymore! We won’t need to have all of these seforim, because when we learn it once, we will remember it! Torah Shebaal Peh will go back to being learned by heart, and the only part of Torah that will still need to be written down is the Sefer Torah, Torah Shebichsav!
See Farbrengen of Motzei Yud Shevat 5730 (Yiddish — hanacha and audio)
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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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