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לעילוי נשמת ר׳ יוסף בנימין בן ר׳ מנשה קאלטמאנן
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לעילוי נשמת הרה״ח הרה״ת הר׳ משה פינחס בן הר׳ אברהם מרדכי הכהן כ״ץ
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CHUMASH

Parshas Acharei-Kedoshim - Chamishi with Rashi

Today we learn MORE mitzvos!

- A Beis Din needs to be fair — not to make a person win or lose a court case just because of how much money they have!
- Rechilus — don’t go around talking about other people.
- If you can save somebody’s life, you have to!
- Don’t hate someone, even just inside your heart.
- If you see someone doing something wrong, you should tell him — but not in a way that will make him embarrassed.
- Nekamah — don’t take revenge against someone — like if someone did something not nice to you, don’t do it back to him.
- Netirah — don’t stay angry at someone — if he did something wrong before, don’t say “I’m nice, not like you!”
- Ve’ahavta Le’reiacha Kamocha! (Rashi says on this posuk, “Rabbi Akiva says — ‘zeh klal gadol baTorah!’” Rabbi Akiva says that this is a big rule for the whole Torah!)
- Don’t have different kinds of animals marry each other — they need to stay married to their own kind.
- Don’t plant a field with lots of plants mixed together — the same kinds of plants should be grouped together, not all mixed up.
- Don’t wear Shatnez — clothes made with wool and linen together.
- We learn what the Beis Din does if a maid who was engaged married someone else before she became free.
- Orlah — we don’t eat fruit from a tree before it grew for 3 years
- Neta Reva’i — the fourth year, the fruit is for Hashem and needs to be eaten in Yerushalayim like Maaser Sheini. Then Hashem promises that in the fifth year, much more fruit will grow, to make up for the years when we kept the mitzvah and didn’t eat the fruit!
- We are not allowed to eat from a Korban before the blood was sprinkled on the Mizbeiach.
- We need to soak and salt meat before eating it (so there is no blood).
- Goyim will sometimes decide to do things or not do things because something “lucky” or “unlucky” happens. Yidden are not allowed to do this — we don’t believe in “luck,” everything is from Hashem!
- We are not allowed to cut the peyos of a boy or a man.
- A man can’t cut his beard.
- A yid can’t hurt himself when someone passes away, the way some goyim do.
- We can’t get a tattoo.
- A girl shouldn’t behave like she’s married before she gets married. If this happens, Eretz Yisroel will stop giving its fruits.
- Keep Shabbos!
- Treat the Beis Hamikdash with kavod.
- Don’t go to sorcery (people who know about the future from the koach of Tumah).
- Stand up in front of an old person (to show kavod) and show kavod by not sitting in his set place or contradicting what he says.

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TEHILLIM

55- 59

Towards the end of every Yom Tov, Chassidim go on Tahalucha, to spread the joy of Yom Tov and teach some Chassidus to Yidden that daven in other shuls.

In the year Tof-Shin-Mem-Daled (1984) there was a terrible rainstorm on Shvi’i Shel Pesach in New York City. The rain was pouring down very heavily — but the Chassidim in Crown Heights went on Tahalucha anyway, to shuls all over the city!

Of course, they all came back to the farbrengen that night soaking wet.

At the farbrengen, the Rebbe gave a special thank you and bracha to all of the Chassidim that had gone on Tahalucha. The Rebbe quoted a posuk from today’s Tehillim, Kapitel Nun-Hey, to show how important it was for them to go even in such bad weather!

The posuk says, “Beveis Elokim Nehalech b’RAGESH” — “to the house of Hashem we will go with trembling.” The three letters of the word “Ragesh” (trembling) hint to three kinds of weather: The reish stands for Ruach (wind), the gimmel stands for Geshem (rain), and the shin stands for Sheleg (snow). This teaches us how no bad weather — wind, rain or snow — should stop us from doing a mitzvah!

The Rebbe finished off with a bracha that everyone who went on Tahalucha should be zoche to go on Tahalucha again the next year.

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TANYA

Likutei Amarim Perek Mem-Vov

Yesterday we learned a mashal that can help us love Hashem. The mashal is about a king coming to take someone out of a garbage dump, and bringing him into the palace and hugging him! That person would surely love the king very much!

When we heard that mashal, we thought, “OF COURSE we would love the king!”

Guess what? What Hashem does for us is even MORE than the king in the mashal! Because Hashem is not just a regular king, He is the king of the WHOLE world, including all of the malachim — and even they are like nothing compared to the greatness of Hashem!

Even though Hashem has so many malochim, who did Hashem choose as HIS special nation?

Hashem chose the Yidden, who were sitting in a “garbage dump” called Mitzrayim! Hashem came Himself and took the Yidden out of Mitzrayim, brought us to Har Sinai, and gave us the Torah and mitzvos, which are like a big hug! Shouldn’t that make us love Hashem very much?

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HAYOM YOM

Yud Iyar

Today is twenty-five days of the Omer!

First we learn a minhag about dipping our challah into salt: It is our minhag to DIP the challah in the salt 3 times, not to sprinkle salt on the challah.

Today we learn about a story that happened on Shavuos with the Rebbeim, but it teaches us about the avodah of Sefiras Ha’omer which we are in now.

One year on the second day of Shavuos, the Tzemach Tzedek told over a story that happened with the Alter Rebbe on Shavuos many years earlier:

On the second day of Shavuos during the seudah, the Alter Rebbe told over something that the Maggid said on Shavuos, years before that! “The Torah tells us to COUNT the days until Shavuos, ‘Usefartem Lachem’ — ‘you should count.’ The word ‘usefartem,’ the Maggid explained, can mean counting, but also SHINING! According to that, ‘usefartem lachem’ can mean ‘you should make yourselves shine’!”

After saying this, the Alter Rebbe sang the special Niggun called the Daled Bavos with great deveikus, leaning on his hands.

After the niggun, the Alter Rebbe lifted up his head and said, in a tune of a question: “How do we make ourselves shine?” He then immediately answered: “With ‘Sheva Shabbasos Temimos,’ ‘seven complete weeks.’

These are the words of the posuk, speaking about how long we count Sefiras Ha’omer. The Alter Rebbe explained this posuk with a deeper meaning:

We work on our midos for seven weeks, making sure that each midah is complete and it includes in it all of the other midos. Then our midos need to be like Shabbos, which is a perfect day that doesn’t need to be corrected.”

When we work on our midos properly and completely, that will make us able to shine!

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SEFER HAMITZVOS

Shiur #287 - Mitzvas Asei #235, Lo Saasei #254, #255

There are 3 mitzvos in today’s Sefer Hamitzvos:

1) (Mitzvas Asei #235) A non-Jewish slave works for a Yid forever, unless the Yid hurts him in certain ways.

We learn this from a posuk in Parshas Behar: לְעֹלָם בָּהֶם תַּעֲבֹדוּ

The halachos of this mitzvah are explained in Mesechta Kiddushin and Mesechta Gittin.

2) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #254) If a non-Jewish slave runs away to Eretz Yisroel, he becomes free and becomes a ger. It is asur to give him back to whoever bought him. Instead, the amount of money he is worth needs to be paid to the person who owned him before, and he doesn’t go back to being a slave.

We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Ki Seitzei: לֹא תַסְגִּיר עֶבֶד אֶל אֲדֹנָיו

The dinim of this mitzvah are also explained in Mesechta Kiddushin and Mesechta Gittin.

3) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #255) It is asur to say anything mean to a non-Jewish slave who ran away to Eretz Yisroel and became a Yid.

We learn this mitzvah from the next posuk in Parshas Ki Seitzei: עִמְּךָ יֵשֵׁב בְּקִרְבְּךָ בַּמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יִבְחַר ... בַּטּוֹב לוֹ לֹא תּוֹנֶנּוּ

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RAMBAM

Hilchos Avodim

In today’s Rambam, we learn more of the halachos of the shtar (document) that the master gives to his servant to make him free.

In Perek Zayin, we learn that if many servants are going free, each servant needs his own shtar to say that he is free. We also learn that the master has to say that he owns NOTHING that belongs to the servant! If he writes that the servant is free, but he still has to polish the master’s shoes, the shtar isn’t good.

Perek Ches teaches us that if a Jew sells a slave to a non-Jew, he gets a knas (fine) that he has to pay up to 10 times as much as the slave is worth to set him free!

There are also other things that the master can do that will set his slave free. For example if he puts tefillin on his slave, that shows that he doesn’t consider him a servant anymore, and he goes free! But if he taught him Torah that’s not a proof that he doesn’t consider him a servant.

We also learn the last two mitzvos of a slave that escapes to Eretz Yisroel, not to send him back, and to treat him well.

Finally, in Perek Tes, the Rambam teaches us a very important lesson in our lives. Although we are allowed to be strict and make our non Jewish slave work hard, a Yid should have rachmanus. The chachomim would give from all of their food and drink to their slaves and feed them first. Hashem has rachmanus on those who have rachmanus on others.

With that we finish the halachos of avadim (slaves), and the whole sefer, Sefer Kinyan!

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RAMBAM PEREK ECHOD

Hilchos Maachalos Asuros - Perek Vov

We learn about the isur of eating blood: The Rambam teaches how we get meat ready to eat, by taking out the blood. One of the ways to do this is to soak the meat in water, and then pour salt on it to help the blood come out. Afterwards, we wash the meat in water until the water doesn’t turn red anymore. This is called Melicha.

(Nowadays, when we buy meat or chicken from a kosher store, it has already been done.)

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INYANA D'YOMA

Tzivos Hashem

In a sicha to children, the Rebbe explains a plan we can use to win over our Yetzer Hara.

We are soldiers in Hashem’s army! We are fighting against the Yetzer Hara by acting the way Hashem wants us to!

In every army, there are “Tachsisei Milchama” — tricks to fight better. We can learn from their ideas how to fight our own Yetzer Hara!

Imagine an army trying to capture another country. One way is for the soldiers to spread out and try to capture the whole thing at once! But then it’s also easier for the enemy to fight back, and they might not be successful.

Another way to do it is that they can send all of the soldiers to capture one city. With all of them working together on a smaller piece of land, they will for sure be able to win over it! Then they can move on to the next city, and then the next, until they have captured the entire country!

We can use that same idea in our Avodas Hashem.

We might have many parts of our Avodah that need to be better. But instead of trying to fix everything all at once, we can use all of our kochos to fix up one thing at a time. If we’re using all of our kochos in one part of our Avodas Hashem, we will definitely be able to correct it! Then we can move on to another thing, and another — until everything we do is the way Hashem wants us to do it!

See Der Rebbe Redt Tzu Kinder (second edition), volume 1, p. 26

▼ Jump to Coloring Books & Downloads ▼

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TEFILLAH

Kol Yisrael

The fourth posuk of the Yud-Beis Pesukim starts with the words “Kol Yisrael.” It is a Mishna in Sanhedrin, and we say it before each perek of Pirkei Avos.

This posuk speaks about how special Yidden are!

Kol Yisrael — Every single Yid

Yeish Lahem Chelek Le’olam Haba — will be part of Techiyas Hameisim, which is also called Olam Haba.

Shene’emar — Like the Navi Yeshaya says,

Ve’ameich Kulam Tzadikim — “The nation of Yidden, who are all tzadikim,

L’olam Yirshu Aretz — deserve to have Olam Haba as a yerusha forever.

Neitzer Mata’ai, Maasei Yadai — They are like a branch that Hashem planted, the work of Hashem,

Lehispa’er — and Hashem is proud of them.”

IY”H we will learn more about what this posuk means, and the important lessons even children could learn from it!

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HALACHOS HATZRICHOS

Muktza Review

We’ve been learning about some of the general concepts of muktza. Let’s do a quick review:

The Chachomim made the takana of muktza for three reasons, mainly to keep Shabbos different than any other day of the week and that we shouldn’t come to do melacha on Shabbos.

We also learned about the special gezeiros made at the times of the Navi Nechemya, which made the halachos of muktza VERY strict for a period of time. We still keep some of that gezeira today.

We learned about the different kinds of muktza — a less strict kind of muktza that can be moved Letzorech Gufo (if we need to use it for something mutar) or Letzorech Mekomo (if we need the space where the muktza is); and a more strict kind of muktza that can’t be moved at all.

We learned that muktza can be moved in an indirect way, “Kil’achar Yad,” not with our hands as usual.

We also learned about exceptions for muktza, for example if there is something that is a sakana.

Tomorrow we will IY”H be learning about another inyan in muktza, called Bosis.

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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GEULAH U'MOSHIACH

The Light of Hashem Will Shine on Everyone

When Moshiach comes, the light of Hashem will shine on the Yidden the way it did at Matan Torah!

Through the Yidden, this light will shine to the goyim too! We see this in the pesukim from Yeshaya which we have been learning. The Navi tells us that the goyim will want to come learn how to live according to Hashem’s way, telling the Yidden, “Beis Yaakov, Lechu Venelcha Be’or Hashem!” The Navi also tells us how the goyim will feel so embarrassed, that they will throw away their Avodah Zarah and run to hide in the rocks and the cliffs.

We see from here that even the goyim will see the light of Hashem!

This was the way it was for a short time at Matan Torah, when the WHOLE world heard the Aseres Hadibros and there was no echo, because it was felt in the entire world! When Moshiach comes, it will stay this way forever.

See Tanya, end of perek Lamed-Vov

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