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CHUMASH
Parshas Ki Seitzei - Chamishi with Rashi
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Moshe Rabbeinu tells the Yidden about more of the mitzvos they will soon get a chance to keep in Eretz Yisroel!
Imagine you are a worker in the hot sun. You are picking the most juicy, delicious-looking grapes you ever saw. You are carefully putting them into a big basket so they can be sold in the marketplace. Do you think you’d want to taste a few?
The Torah tells us that when someone is working in another person’s field, helping to pick vegetables or fruits, he is allowed to eat until he is full! He can’t take any home with him, but he is allowed to eat while he works.
We learned many times about how a Jewish marriage is full of Kedusha. What happens when someone can’t stay married anymore?
If two people are married, and one of them acts in a way that isn’t right for a Yid, sometimes it is the right thing for them not to stay married anymore. They need to go to Beis Din, who writes a special paper called a Get. It is very hard to write a Get properly! Once the man gives her the Get, they aren’t married anymore, and she is allowed to marry someone else.
The Torah warns other men to be careful about marrying someone if her Get was because she didn’t act like a Jewish woman should — they will probably end up giving her a Get too.
If the man and woman change their minds, they can only get married again if she didn’t get married to anyone else since she got her Get.
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Today’s kapitelach are Samach-Vov, Samach-Zayin, and Samach-Ches. We also say three kapitelach for Elul: Lamed-Daled, Lamed-Hey, and Lamed-Vov.
In Kapitel Samech-Vov, Dovid Hamelech says with Ruach Hakodesh words we will say to Hashem when Moshiach comes!
In pesukim Yud, Yud-Alef, and Yud-Beis, Dovid Hamelech tells us how we will thank Hashem for saving us from the tzaros of Golus. We will say that even though Hashem tested us with many tzaros, and that sometimes the troubles even got worse, in the end, Hashem saved us! Vatotzienu Larevaya, we will thank Hashem for bringing us out of Golus to the time of Geulah!
See the Metzudos on this kapitel, and the introduction in Tehillim Ohel Yosef Yitzchok
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TANYA
Igeres Hakodesh Siman Yud-Daled
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Many of the letters in Igeres Hakodesh were sent to the Chassidim to get them excited about giving Tzedakah!
There were other great Talmidim of the Maggid, big Tzadikim, who lived in Eretz Yisroel. It was very hard in those days to make money in Eretz Yisroel, and they needed the money that Chassidim sent from other countries. The Alter Rebbe started a special Tzedakah called Colel Chabad (which we still have today!) to collect money for Chassidim there.
When something new starts, everyone gets excited and wants to be a part of it! After a while, though, it isn’t so new and exciting anymore, and people get busy with other things. The same was with Colel Chabad — at first, everyone was giving Tzedakah with a chayus! But then, the donations started slowing down. In this letter, the Alter Rebbe is getting the Chassidim excited again about giving to this special tzedakah.
Eretz Yisroel is a very special place. It gets its chayus DIRECTLY from Hashem! (The rest of the world gets chayus through the chayus that goes into Eretz Yisroel.)
But this chayus isn’t always the same. Every year, a NEW chayus comes into Eretz Yisroel, that was never there before!
Every year on Erev Rosh Hashana, all of the mitzvos we did all year go up to Hashem, and when we daven and blow the Shofar, the new chayus comes into Eretz Yisroel, and from there, to the rest of the world!
Since there is a new chayus in Eretz Yisroel every year, there should also be a new chayus every year in giving tzedakah to Eretz Yisroel!
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The Rebbe Rashab said a very long Hemshech called “Besha’ah Shehikdimu, Te’erav.”
What is a Hemshech? It is many maamarim that need to be learned in order — like one very long maamar!
The Hemshech took more than THREE YEARS to say to the Chassidim — from Shavuos in 5672 (when the Rebbe Rashab was in Lubavitch) to Parshas Vayeira in 5676 (when the Rebbe Rashab was in Rostov)! This last maamar starts with the words “VaHashem Amar.”
There are 144 Maamorim in this Hemshech. (It is the LONGEST hemshech of maamarim in Chassidus!)
In fact, the Rebbe Rashab even had a SECOND part that he didn’t say it to the Chassidim — he just wrote it down.
For many years, Chassidim only had parts of this Hemshech in copies of handwritten notes. In the year Tof-Shin-Lamed-Zayin, the Rebbe asked for it to be printed! The Rebbe gave special instructions how this should be done, and asked everyone to be a part of it! (See Derher magazine, Kislev 5777, for the whole story of when this happened!)
One of the things we can learn from this is about the Avodah we do in Chodesh Elul, where we make hachlatos for the coming year. We can learn from this that it is possible to make a hachlata that will take a long time to finish — even a few years!
Did you ever think about making a hachlata that will take you a long time to finish?
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Today’s mitzvah is the same as yesterday’s (Mitzvas Asei #95) — that if a Yid makes a promise and changes his mind, he needs to go to a Rav or Beis Din to do that.
We also learn two more mitzvos, from the next set of halachos in Rambam, halachos about a Nazir.
1) (Mitzvas Asei #92) A Nazir has a mitzvah to let his hair grow. Like we will see in the next mitzvah, it is asur for a Nazir to cut his hair. In this Mitzvas Asei, we learn that it’s not enough for him not to cut it, the Nazir needs to make sure he is letting his hair grow. So, for example, he isn’t allowed to rub cream on his head that keeps hair from growing.
2) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #209) A Nazir is not allowed to cut off his hair — not even one single hair!
These mitzvos are explained in Gemara, in Mesechta Nazir.
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RAMBAM
Hilchos Nedarim - Hilchos Nezirus
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Perek Yud-Gimmel: (This is the last perek of Hilchos Nedarim.) We learn about HOW we take away a promise. At the end of the perek, the Rambam tells us when it’s a GOOD thing to make a neder. A neder can actually help us in our Avodas Hashem!
For example, if someone eats way too much, and not in an aidel way, he can make a promise not to eat any meat for one or two years. If someone drinks too much wine, he can make a neder to only drink wine on Shabbos and Yom Tov for a few years, or he can promise never to get drunk.
Still, we should be careful not to make too many nedarim, so that we don’t forget how serious a neder is in halacha. Nowadays, when we make a hachlata, we should always say that it is bli neder. Even though we are very serious about keeping our hachlata, we want to be extra careful to not ever end up chas veshalom not keeping a neder.
Now we start the next set of halachos, about a SPECIFIC kind of promise — if someone promises to become a Nazir!
Perek Alef: There are things that are asur if someone becomes a Nazir — cutting his hair or eating things made with grapes. A person doesn’t have to say “I will become a nazir” to become one — he can say things like “I will grow my hair,” while thinking that he wants to be a Nazir.
Perek Beis: We learn more about a Nazir’s promise: What happens if he makes the promise by mistake, or because someone forces him, or because of a reason that ends up not being true? In many cases, he is not a Nazir.
One interesting halacha is that a person STAYS a Nazir until they bring their korbanos, and that a Nazir needs to be in Eretz Yisroel. So if someone makes a promise to be a Nazir nowadays, he has to move to Eretz Yisroel and stay a Nazir until the Beis Hamikdash is built and he can bring his korbanos.
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Now we learn about buying things by trading one thing for another, like buying a cow by giving the other person a donkey. A person can even give something small, like a handkerchief, to show that it belongs to the other person. This has a bunch of halachos about how it works!
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In Elul, we make a Cheshbon Hanefesh — seeing how we did this past year, to prepare for the coming year, so it will be much better. Did we do a good job with our mitzvos? Did we start figuring out some of the tricks our Yetzer Hara tries to use on us? Are we doing better in our Avodas Hashem than last year? Are we really using ALL of our kochos to bring the geulah closer?
How do we make this Cheshbon Hanefesh?
The Rebbe’s father, R’ Levi Yitzchak, explained that the word “Elul” teaches us how! If you make the letters “Elul” into numbers, you will get 67. Another word with the same Gematria (making letters into numbers) is Bina, understanding!
There are two ways of understanding something — we can understand something in general, or we can understand it completely with all of the details. When we understand something completely, that is using our koach of Bina.
For our Cheshbon Hanefesh in Elul, we need to have Bina! We can’t JUST think about “Did I have a lot of Kibbud Av Va’em? Maybe I need to do better.” We need to think, “I need to have more Kibbud Av Va’em by doing what Mommy and Tatty tell me RIGHT AWAY, instead of waiting until I’m in the mood.”
When we think about how we acted with Bina, we can figure out how to make every little part better and be sure that we are doing our shlichus in the coming year in the best possible way!
See Toras Menachem Tof-Shin-Mem-Daled, vol. 4, p. 2504
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Starting from Rosh Chodesh Elul, all the way through Hoshaana Rabbah, we add a special mizmor to our davening each day, in Shacharis and Mincha. This is kapitel Chof-Zayin of Tehillim, which starts with the words Ledovid Hashem Ori.
Adding this kapitel is a minhag that goes back to the time of the Arizal! It is written that if we say this mizmor during Elul, it takes away any not good gezeiros, so that we will be judged only for good. In Ledovid Hashem Ori, there are many hints to the avodah of Elul and the Yomim Noraim:
We say, “Hashem Ori Veyishi,” “Hashem is my light and my salvation.” The Medrash explains that during Rosh Hashana, Hashem shows Himself in a way of Ori, as our light. On Yom Kippur, Hashem shows Himself in a way of Yishi, saving us.
Another hint is near the end of this kapitel, in the posuk “Lulei He’emanti,” “if only my emunah was proper.” The word Lulei is the same letters as the word Elul, only backwards! This hints to the avodah of Elul — looking back on what happened during the past year so we can work on doing better next year.
Chassidus brings that a very important posuk of this Mizmor connected to Elul is “Lecha Amar Libi, Bakshu Fanai” — “My heart says to search out the pnimius of Hashem.” When Hashem is like a king in the field, it is much easier to find the pnimius of Hashem! This is the avodah of Elul, to use the kochos of this time and connect to Hashem in this special way.
See Otzar Minhagei Chabad, Chodesh Elul and sources cited there
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There are many different minhagim about when to start and finish saying Ledovid Hashem Ori, what part of davening to say it in, and in which of the daily tefillos to say it.
Our minhag is to start early — on the first day of Rosh Chodesh Elul, even though it is still part of Chodesh Av. We continue saying it until Hoshaana Rabbah, the end of the time of din.
We say Ledovid Hashem Ori in Shacharis and Mincha, but not in Maariv.
In Shacharis, we say Ledovid Hashem Ori after the Shir Shel Yom, before the kaddish of the Shir Shel Yom.
In Mincha, we say it before Aleinu.
Even though this is our minhag, it is more important to follow the halacha of saying Aleinu together with the minyan. So if we are davening Mincha with a minyan that says Ledovid Hashem Ori after Aleinu, we should say Aleinu and Ledovid Hashem Ori afterwards, together with the minyan.
See Otzar Minhagei Chabad Chodesh Elul, os Hey, Igros Kodesh vol. 19 p. 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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The Navi Zechariah lived at the same time as the Navi Chagai. During those days, the Yidden had returned to Eretz Yisroel and were trying to build the second Beis Hamikdash.
Zechariah started saying nevuos when he was still young, and he says some of the most famous nevuos about the Geulah!
Many of Zechariah’s nevuos are very mysterious. The Navi tells us what he saw, and they are like dreams that we can’t understand. Rashi tells us (in the first posuk of Zechariah) that we will not understand all of Zechariah’s nevuos until Moshiach himself comes to explain them!
IY”H over the next few days we will learn some of Zechariah’s famous nevuos about the Geulah.
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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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