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CHUMASH
Parshas Acharei - Shlishi with Rashi
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Today we finish learning about the Avodah on Yom Kippur in the Mishkan and Beis Hamikdash. We will also learn how the Yidden should keep Yom Kippur every year!
The Kohen Gadol, wearing his regular Kohen Gadol clothing like all year, burns the fat of the korbanos on the Mizbeiach. The rest of the parts of the animal are taken outside of Yerushalayim by a regular kohen and burned there. He then changes back into the special linen Yom Kippur clothes, and takes the ketores pan and spoon out of the Kodesh Hakodoshim.
Once this is done, he needs to go to the mikvah and put back on his regular Kohen Gadol clothing and finish the avodah of the day. He brings the rest of the korbanos, the Korban Tomid, the regular ketores, and he lights the menorah. Finally the Yom Kippur Avodah is finished. He puts on his regular clothes and goes home.
The kohen who burns the rest of the parts of the korbanos outside of Yerushalayim, and the one who brought the goat to Azazel need to go to the mikvah, and dip their clothes in the mikvah, before coming back.
Even though we don’t have the whole Yom Kippur Avodah since we don’t have a Beis Hamikdash, Yom Kippur is a mitzvah forever! Here are the things that happen every year on Yom Kippur:
- We do the “inuyim” (not doing certain things that we are usually comfortable doing, like eating and wearing leather shoes)
- We don’t do any work on Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur is a special day every year, when Hashem will forgive us for our aveiros!
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Today’s Tehillim is Kapitel Kuf-Yud-Tes, the LONGEST kapitel in the whole Tehillim! It is so long that we don’t even say the whole Kapitel today, just the first half.
In this kapitel, Dovid Hamelech asks Hashem on behalf of all the Yidden that we should be able to understand the Torah and follow the path of Yiddishkeit, and be connected to Hashem.
One of the pesukim, which is also explained in many places in Chassidus, speaks about how Dovid Hamelech praised the Torah. Dovid Hamelech said that the Torah was his comfort in his time of suffering! Even though this is not the TRUE greatness of Torah, which is Hashem’s treasure, Dovid Hamelech saw this maalah in Torah too. When he was being chased by his enemies, and had to hide for a long time all alone, afraid for his life, learning Torah brought him comfort.
Dovid Hamelech said about that time, “Zemiros Hayu Li Chukecha Beveis Megurai.” Hashem, Your Torah was like songs to me (brought me comfort) in the place where I was afraid.”
Chassidus explains that Dovid Hamelech wasn’t just saying that learning Torah made him feel good. He was saying that because of what Torah is, it is able to bring a person comfort in a scary time!
The Torah is the source of everything that happens in the world. By connecting to the Torah, the source of even those scary things happening to him, he was able to feel higher than them in a certain way, and didn’t need to feel afraid!
See Tehillim Ohel Yosef Yitzchok Hashalem (Kehos), Kapitel Kuf-Yud-Tes and footnotes to maamarim cited in hosafos in the back
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Mem-Beis
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We have learned so far that when a person uses his mind to think about how Hashem is watching over him and how the world is like Hashem’s “clothing,” his thoughts will bring him to have Yiras Shomayim.
But the problem is that we need to have Yiras Shomayim ALL the time, and we’re not always able to be thinking these thoughts! We may be busy with something, or not in the right mood.
So today the Alter Rebbe tells us that all you need to do is remember a few words in your mind. Then, together with the koach of your neshama, you’ll be able to always have Kabolas Ol, no matter what — anytime!
These are the words to remind yourself: Kabolas Ol Malchus Shomayim.
Just thinking those few words will remind us how Hashem is our King, and will make us able to act in a way of Kabolas Ol, just the way we realize how Hashem is our King when we say Shema Yisroel and bow to Hashem in Shemoneh Esrei!
So if you’re ever at a farbrengen, and somebody says “We need to have more Kabolas Ol!” you might wonder how it helps to just say that. But like we learn in today’s Tanya, remembering those words all the time has a koach to help us act the way Hashem wants!
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Today is the tenth day of the Omer!
Imagine that you met a person who knows how to cut and polish diamonds, to be used in fancy jewelry. People from all over admire his beautiful diamonds and gems. Students come to watch him cutting stones, so they can learn how to do it as well as he does.
Then you hear that this person decided to stop working with diamonds, and went to work in the local bakery. You would think that that’s a real waste!
Of course, working in a bakery is a very important job. There would be no bread if there were no bakers! But if you have the special skills to be a diamond cutter, it’s not the right job for you.
Just like this is in Gashmius, the same is true in Ruchnius, with our shlichus in serving Hashem. In today’s Hayom Yom, the Rebbe tells us about this:
Every person has a special Avodah, a special way they need to serve Hashem. Hashem wants us each to use all of our talents, our knowledge, and our koach to do our shlichus in the best possible way.
If a person who could polish diamonds is instead baking bread, he is NOT doing the right thing! Of course, baking bread is very important, but it is a job that many people can learn how to do. If he can be doing a very special job, that most people CAN’T do, that’s what he needs to do.
The same way, if a person can do a very important and special job in Avodas Hashem, and instead he is doing something else — even though for someone else it might be important and good, for this person it is like he is doing an “aveira” because he could be doing something more!
The Rebbe took this Hayom Yom from a letter the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote to a Tomim who said that he teaches Chassidus on Shabbos in the place he lives, and has shiurim in Mishnayos and Gemara during the week. The Frierdiker Rebbe told this Tomim that even though he is happy to hear that, since he was one of the best students in Tomchei Temimim, he should be teaching MORE shiurim in Chassidus to the people around him and make more Chassidim!
We also were all zoche to learn from the Rebbe. We have an extra-special achrayus to make sure we are being a dugma chaya and sharing what we know with those around us!
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Today we learn two mitzvos in Sefer Hamitzvos:
1) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #294) If someone was forced to do an aveira (onus), we don’t punish him because it wasn’t his fault.
The Gemara in Sanhedrin says, “Oness Rachmana Patrei” — if someone was forced, the Torah makes him patur (exempt).
We learn this mitzvah from Parshas Ki Seitzei: וְלַנַּעֲרָה לֹא תַעֲשֶׂה דָבָר
2) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #290) The Beis Din is not allowed to punish someone based on what we think happened. Even if we are VERY sure that a person must have done an aveira, the Beis Din is only allowed to punish him if there were at least two people who actually saw him do the aveira.
Once a Beis Din starts punishing someone who is PROBABLY guilty, then they will end up punishing someone who MIGHT be guilty! The Torah doesn’t want us to start guessing when a person should be punished. It is better that a thousand people should not be punished for their aveiros by Beis Din, than for one person to be punished when he doesn’t deserve it.
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Mishpatim: וְנָקִי וְצַדִּיק אַל תַּהֲרֹג
This means, “a person who is innocent and a tzadik should not be put to death.” From here we see how careful we need to be to make sure that an innocent person is not punished.
(We don’t have to worry about a person not being punished. Even if the Beis Din doesn’t give the punishment, Hashem has many other ways to make sure that there is justice in the world!)
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In today’s Rambam we learn how the Beis Din carries out Misas Beis Din.
In Perek Yud-Gimmel, the Rambam tells us how careful we are not to punish someone with misa (death) unless we are absolutely sure he deserves it! On his way to be killed, if he comes up with a good reason why he is innocent, we take him back to the Beis Din again and again, to see if his reason changes the psak.
Perek Yud-Daled has more halachos about a person who is chayav misa deserves to be killed. One halacha tells us that we need to be very patient, and not try to pasken quickly if someone deserves misa! If a Beis Din kills one person every seven years, we say that they are a bloodthirsty court.
When the Beis Hamikdash was built, the Sanhedrin would gather in the Lishkas Hagazis, a part of the Beis Hamikdash. (This room did not have the same level of kedushah as other parts of the Beis Hamikdash, so the Sanhedrin was allowed to sit down there.)
When the Yidden stopped behaving properly, the Sanhedrin went into Golus. They traveled from place to place, to 10 different parts of Eretz Yisroel. The last place they stopped was in Teveriah.
Since then, the Sanhedrin has never gotten together. The Rambam says that we have a kabbalah (tradition) that when Moshiach comes, the Sanhedrin will first gather in Teveriah, and go from there to the Beis Hamikdash.
In Perek Tes-Vov, the Rambam lists all of the aveiros that can make a person deserve Misas Beis Din. There are 36 of these aveiros.
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Now we learn about how tomei food and drinks make things that they touch tomei too.
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On Chof-Hey Nissan, after the Gulf War in Eretz Yisroel (which finished on Purim), the Rebbe said a sicha to the guests who came for Pesach.
The Rebbe thanked Hashem, talking about all of the nissim that Hashem did during the war, and showed that these nisim are signs of the Geulah which is coming! The Rebbe said we shouldn’t be embarrassed to dance to show Hashem how much we want to thank Him!
One of the things we can learn from this is that when Hashem does a neis for us, and especially for many Yidden, we need to show Hashem that we are thankful!
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▼ Jump to Coloring Books & Downloads ▼
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The Rebbe introduced 12 pesukim and Maamarei Chazal for children to know. They should both learn them by heart, and also know what they mean. This way we can think about the lessons the pesukim teach us even when we are between games, and be so excited about them that we will want to talk about them with our friends too!
Torah Tziva and Shema were chosen to be the first two pesukim. This is based on what the Gemara says, that as soon as a child starts to speak, his father should teach him to say pesukim. The pesukim the Chachomim tell us to first teach are Torah Tziva and Shema Yisroel!
So the very first posuk we start off the chinuch of a Jewish child with is Torah Tziva.
The words of the posuk mean that Moshe Rabbeinu taught us (“Tziva Lanu”) the Torah, and it is given over as a yerusha (“Morasha”) to all of the children of Yaakov (“Kehilas Yaakov”), all of the Yidden.
The lesson that this posuk teaches us is that Torah is OURS!
When we have a toy that is OURS, we put it away in a special place, we spend time playing with it and figuring out how it works.
The Torah is ours too! When we think about that, we will want to keep Torah close to us! We will want to spend time learning and understanding this special present that belongs to us.
See Der Rebbe Redt Tzu Kinder, vol. 5 p. 245
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There is a bracha that we say when we see a fruit tree starting to blossom. This is a special thing to see, and we thank Hashem that we are able to enjoy this part of His world.
There are different opinions on when we are able to say this bracha. Really, it should be made in Chodesh Nisan, but some opinions say that we can also make the bracha in Adar or Iyar, if that is when we see a blossoming tree. There are also opinions that say that it doesn’t have to be a fruit tree, but that it can be any tree with flowers.
The Rebbe writes that from what the Alter Rebbe says in Seder Birchos Hanehenin, it is clear what we should do. The Alter Rebbe’s opinion is that this bracha should only be made in Chodesh Nisan, and only on a fruit tree that is starting to blossom.
Based on this, there are only a few days left to say this bracha!
See Shulchan Menachem p. 53, and Igros Kodesh Chelek Chof-Gimmel letter #8965
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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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In the haftora of Acharon Shel Pesach, there are many important nevuos about Moshiach! The first thing we learn is about what kind of person Moshiach is.
וְנָחָה עָלָיו רוּחַ ה׳ רוּחַ חָכְמָה וּבִינָה רוּחַ עֵצָה וּגְבוּרָה רוּחַ דַּעַת וְיִרְאַת ה׳
The posuk says:
Venacha Alav Ruach Hashem — The spirit of Hashem will rest on Moshiach
Ruach Chochma U’Vina — A spirit of wisdom and understanding
Ruach Eitza U’Gevurah — A spirit of good advice and strength
Ruach Daas V’Yiras Hashem — A spirit of knowledge and Yiras Shomayim.
When we take out the Sefer Torah on Yom Tov, there is a special tefillah we say. In it we ask Hashem that this posuk should be true about us!
Even though the posuk is talking about Moshiach, we want it to be true about ourselves too. In every Yid there is a spark of Moshiach, and if every Yid makes that spark stronger, it will help the neshama of Moshiach to do its shlichus, and bring the Geulah for all the Yidden!
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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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