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CHUMASH
Parshas Emor - Revi'i with Rashi
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In today’s Chumash, we learn about some of the Yomim Tovim!
First Hashem reminds us to keep Shabbos. Rashi tells us that the reason why Hashem tells us about Shabbos right before telling us about the Yomim Tovim is to show us that we have to be just as careful to keep Yom Tov as we are to keep Shabbos. Even though Shabbos is holy automatically the way Hashem set it up, and the Yomim Tovim only become holy when the Beis Din decides when Rosh Chodesh should be, they still need to be kept just as carefully.
Now we start to go through the Yomim Tovim, starting with Pesach:
Pesach — Erev Pesach, we bring a Korban Pesach. Then on Tes-Vov Nissan, Pesach starts! It is called Chag Hamatzos, and we only eat matzah (not chometz) all 7 days. The first day and the seventh day are Yom Tov, and we can’t do melacha. Every day of Pesach there is a special korban.
For places outside of Eretz Yisroel, Pesach is eight days. Do you know why?
Korban Haomer — Before we can eat the grain (like wheat or barley) that grows in a field, we need to first bring the Korban Ha’omer. On the second day of Pesach, we bring an Omer (a certain amount) of the new grain to the kohen. The kohen waves the Omer like a Lulav, as a present for Hashem. Along with the Omer of grain, we also bring a sheep as a korban. Then we are allowed to eat from the new grain.
This is called “Chodosh.” There is a machlokes among Chachomim whether this needs to be kept outside of Eretz Yisroel or not.
Sefiras Haomer — Starting from the day we bring the Korban Ha’omer, we need to count 7 weeks (49 days).
Shavuos — On the fiftieth day of our counting is the Yom Tov of Shavuos. We need to bring another special korban: Two loaves of bread (Shtei Halechem), 7 lambs, one bull, and 2 rams! We also need to bring a Yom Tov korban — a goat and two lambs. The kohen has to wave the bread and the two lambs before bringing the korban. On Shavuos we can’t do melacha.
The Torah reminds us again about the Matnos Aniyim, the parts of our fields that belong to the poor: When we pick what grows in our fields, we need to leave one of the corners (Pe’ah) and whatever falls down (Leket) or was forgotten (Shichecha) for the poor people to take!
Rashi tells us that the Torah reminds us about these mitzvos right here, when we learn about the Yom Tov korbanos, to teach us that if someone is careful with these mitzvos it is like they built the Beis Hamikdash and brought korbanos in it!
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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-Zayin
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When a Yid thinks about how Hashem loves us, took us out of Mitzrayim, gave us the Torah, and made us His special nation, it will be very easy for him to feel a love for Hashem and be inspired to do Hashem’s Ratzon!
But Yetziyas Mitzrayim happened thousands of years ago! How can remembering something that happened even before we were born make us feel this way?
The Alter Rebbe tells us that really Yetziyas Mitzrayim happens EVERY DAY.
בְּכָל דוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָיב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת עַצְמוֹ כְּאִילוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִצְרָיִם
The Mishna says that in every generation, a person should think of himself as if he is going out of Mitzrayim! Even though the Mishna says “in every generation,” the Alter Rebbe explains that really it means EVERY DAY! Every day a person needs to think of himself as if he is going out of Mitzrayim.
How?
Hashem made our body in a way that it is like Mitzrayim. It doesn’t want us to do what Hashem wants. When we learn Torah and do mitzvos, and especially when we say Shema and decide that we WANT to live the way Hashem wants us to, we are going out of this Mitzrayim and becoming very close to Hashem! This is also what happened to the Yidden, who were taken out of Mitzrayim and became close to Hashem at Matan Torah. But it is really happening to us EVERY day!
When we think about how close Hashem lets us come to Him through His Torah and mitzvos, we will want to show our love back to Hashem! We do this by doing whatever we can to do our shlichus in this world properly.
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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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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #168): Even though a regular kohen SHOULD become tomei to go to a levayah of someone in his family who passed away, a Kohen Gadol should NOT.
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Emor: לְאָבִיו וּלְאִמּוֹ לֹא יִטַּמָּא
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In today’s Rambam, we learn halachos about how we act if someone passes away R”L.
One of the halachos in Perek Gimmel is that even though kohanim have to be so careful not to become tomei, even a kohen should become tomei if a Nasi (or a Rebbe) passes away to show kavod.
In Perek Daled, we learn about Kavod Hameis, showing kavod for a person who passed away.
Perek Hey teaches halachos about aveilus, how a person acts when a close relative passes away.
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One of the things this perek explains the halachos about a plant or an animal becoming tomei: While a plant is growing, it can’t become tomei, and while an animal is alive, its meat is not mekabel tumah.
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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
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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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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.
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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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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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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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