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When there are two parshios together, we always connect the two parshios in the Chumash of Yom Revi’i. So today we finish Parshas Matos and start Parshas Masei. In yesterday’s Chumash, we learned that the Shevatim of Reuven and Gad asked if they could live in the lands of the Emori, and they said that they would fight at the head of all of the Yidden to capture Eretz Yisroel! Today we see how Moshe answered them. We also review the 42 places the Yidden camped in the Midbar. Moshe Rabbeinu agrees with the compromise: Moshe told the Yidden from Shevet Reuven and Gad that if they do what they said, and fight in front of the Yidden to capture the rest of Eretz Yisroel, then they can have land on the other side of the Yarden. If they don’t, they will be punished by Hashem! Reuven and Gad promised to do that — they will leave their families and animals in Gilad, and come with the rest of the Yidden to fight. So Moshe gave them the land that used to be Sichon’s. Menasheh also is given land on the other side of the Yarden: Moshe Rabbeinu gave the land of Og to two of the families of Menasheh, even though they hadn’t asked to live there. By splitting up the Shevet Moshe was showing them that this WAS going to be part of Eretz Yisroel. Shevet Menasheh loved Eretz Yisroel even more than the other Shevatim! Since THEY would live there now, it would be clear to everyone that this would become part of the land. Shevet Gad and Reuven made the cities in Sichon’s land into cities where their families could live and places for their animals to be. They changed the names of the cities to show that now they belonged to the Yidden! Shevet Menasheh also captured some more cities, which later also became part of Eretz Yisrael! Now we start learning Parshas Masei! We review the travels of the Yidden: The Yidden are about to go in to Eretz Yisroel! So we review the places the Yidden went in the Midbar — 42 stops. The Torah tells us all of the places the Yidden went through in the Midbar, starting from when the Yidden left Mitzrayim, from Raamses and traveled to Sukkos. The last place they traveled to was Arvos Moav, near the Yarden. From there they would soon be able to go into Eretz Yisroel! |
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Today’s kapitelach are Kuf-Lamed-Hey until Kuf-Lamed-Tes. Kapitel Kuf-Lamed-Tes (139) is a very special kapitel. It teaches a person how to serve Hashem — there is no other kapitel that does this in such a special way! One of the things that Dovid Hamelech says is about how Hashem created Adam HaRishon — “Achor VaKedem Tzartani” — “You created me last and first.” What does that mean? How can Adam be created last AND first at the same time?! We will soon learn in Tanya that you can have two opposite things together if they are for different reasons! The Alter Rebbe explains in Likutei Torah that “Achor” (last) means that he is created on the LAST day of Creation, and he is the lowest madreiga, because he can do an aveira — going AGAINST what Hashem wants. Only a person can do an aveira! But he is FIRST because he has a neshama, which no other creation has! And even his Guf is also very close and precious to Hashem. See Likutei Torah Parshas Matos |
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To make sure our teshuvah lasts, we need to feel rachmanus for our neshama, that has to come all the way into the Gashmius world, and we need to remember what happens to the neshama when it does an aveira. We also learned that aveiros are like clouds that block our neshamos from the light of Hashem. When we have rachmonus on our neshama by thinking those things, Hashem has rachmanus on us, and fixes up whatever not good things happened from the aveira. And when we think about what happens when we do aveiros (so we’ll never want to do them again), Hashem wipes away our aveiros. It is like a big wind coming and blowing away the clouds, so that we can see the sun again — our connection with Hashem isn’t blocked anymore! That is called Teshuvah Tata’ah. We said that the neshama of a Yid has the name of Hashem inside of it, and when a Yid does an aveira, the last hey of Hashem’s name in the neshama goes into Golus. When the Yid does teshuvah, that last Hey goes back and becomes connected with the other letters of Hashem’s name. It is called Teshuvah Tata’ah because tata’ah means the “lower” one — this teshuvah returns the last Hey of Hashem’s name to its proper place. Now once Hashem “blew away the clouds” of our aveiros with Teshuvah Tata’ah, we are ready for the higher level of Teshuvah, Teshuvah Ila’ah. What is that? The neshama becomes connected to Hashem in a much higher way from this Teshuvah. We said before that our neshama comes from a very strong chayus of Hashem. This chayus is like when a person blows — it takes a lot of chayus, and it comes from very deep inside! Our neshama has a chayus that is very strong, from very close to Hashem. But there is something even closer than that! When someone blows, they blow the air outside of themselves, so it can go further away. But imagine the air that a person is ABOUT to blow: That is coming from very deep inside, with the same strong chayus, but it doesn’t go further away from the person at all! That is a mashal for how close a person is to Hashem when he does Teshuvah Ila’ah. Because the Yid was separated from Hashem before, now he feels an EXTRA chayus inside of himself to learn Torah and do mitzvos. Did you ever lose a toy that you really liked? It probably made you very sad! But what happens when you find it again? You are SO excited, and you like it even MORE now, you take better care of it and you play with it more than you ever did before! This extra chayus which is in the Teshuvah Ila’ah is what makes a Baal Teshuvah so special — in a way even more special than Tzadikim! The Rebbe would eat the Seudos of Yom Tov in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s home while Rebbetzin Nechama Dina, the Friediker Rebbe’s Rebbetzin, was still alive. The Rebbe’s brother-in-law the Rashag would be there, and other chassidim too. Around the time of one Yom Tov, the Rebbe had been speaking at farbrengens about how a Yid doesn’t have to do TWO steps, first Teshuvah Tata’ah and then Teshuvah Ila’ah, but we can go RIGHT to Teshuvah Ila’ah. The Rashag asked the Rebbe about this, and the Rebbe said that this is a special hora’ah for our time. We have the koach now to go STRAIGHT to the second level of Teshuvah! We don’t even have to think about how sad we are about what happened from the aveira, we can right away feel that we want to become closer to Hashem by learning Torah and doing mitzvos with an extra special chayus! In the next two perakim we will learn more about how to do Teshuvah Ila’ah in the three areas of Avodas Hashem: Torah, Avodah, and Gemilus Chasadim. |
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A while back in Hayom Yom, we learned how important it is to live in a place with healthy air. If someone is R”L sick, many times they will try to go to a place with better air, so they will become healthier. In Ruchnius, we also need to have clean air. The air becomes cleaner by us saying words of Torah wherever we go. This way we can feel that we live in a Ruchniusdike atmosphere. Today the Rebbe tells us that each of the Rebbeim had certain maamorim that they would say over every two or three years just for this reason — to make the Ruchnius air better! Here are one of these maamorim from each of the Rebbeim that were said for this reason: Alter Rebbe: Heichaltzu (from this week’s parsha, Parshas Matos! It is printed in Likutei Torah, with notes from the Tzemach Tzedek) Mitteler Rebbe: Yafa Sha’ah Achas (it’s in the Mitteler Rebbe’s sefer Derech Chayim, explained in the first 10 perakim) Tzemach Tzedek: Mah Tovu (in Likutei Torah, which we learned in Parshas Balak — it’s about Teshuvah) Rebbe Maharash: Mi Chamocha BaEilim Rebbe Rashab: Veyadaata Hayom (it was said in “Moskove Nun-Zayin” — in Moscow. It talks about the koach a Yid has to overcome nisyonos!) |
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In Sefer Hamitzvos, we again learn the mitzvah (Mitzvas Asei #213) of getting married according to Torah! This is called Kiddushin. One of the ways we do Kiddushin is for the Chosson to give the Kallah something worth at least a perutah, and says that she is his wife. That’s called “Kiddushei Kesef.” Another way is that he writes down on a paper that she is his wife, and she accepts it from him in order to get married. That’s called “Kiddushei Shtar.” We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Ki Seitzei: כִּי יִקַּח אִישׁ אִשָּׁה וּבְעָלָהּ The details are explained in Mesechta Kiddushin. |
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In today’s Rambam, Perakim Beis, Gimmel, and Daled, we learn the halachos of the mitzvah in today’s Sefer Hamitzvos. There are many different ways to tell a woman that she is married to him. For example, a man can say to a woman, “You are my wife,” when he gives her something worth at least a perutah. But if he says, “With this I am your husband,” they are not married. The Rambam also tells us that someone else can be sent as a shliach to do the Kiddushin, for example sending someone to bring money to the kallah and say that she will become the wife of the man who sent him. Still, it is better for the chosson to do it by himself. Before we do many mitzvos, we say a bracha. Before the mitzvah of Kiddushin, we also say a special bracha. (This bracha is the first bracha that is said under the chuppah, in the Rambam’s nusach, “Asher Kidishanu Bemitzvosav Vehivdilanu Min Ha’arayos...” ) |
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This perek teaches us what robbery is, and the general rule of how a robber pays back. We also learn that it is asur to be jealous of something someone has and try to get the other person to sell it. The Torah tells us that if someone does that, he will eventually rob! |
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The Rebbe told us to learn about the Beis Hamikdash during the Three Weeks, to weaken a little bit the inyan of the Churban, and to speed up the building of the Third Beis Hamikdash! The Kohanim would work all day in the Beis Hamikdash, starting from very early in the morning. Where did they sleep to be in the Beis Hamikdash on time? There was a room in the Beis Hamikdash called the Beis Hamoked where the Kohanim could sleep. This room was next to the Heichal (the building with the Kodesh and Kodesh HaKodoshim). Part of it was Kodesh, and part of it was Chol. There was a big heavy tile in the floor that could be picked up, with the keys to the Azara underneath it. When the Kohanim woke up, they would take out the keys to open the doors and start the Avodah of the day! |
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The Chachomim gave us many brachos to say, to make it easier for us to say 100 brachos every day. In Birchos Hashachar, we say a list of many brachos, thanking Hashem for the things we benefit from every morning. These brachos go in order of how people used to get up in the morning in the times of the Anshei Kneses Hagedolah. So far we learned from when people hear the rooster crowing until they get dressed. Today we will learn the rest of these brachos: 7) Then he would put his feet on the floor, and thank Hashem for making solid ground to stand on — Roka Ha’aretz Al Hamayim (“Who spread the ground over the water”) 8) He would then put on his shoes, and thank Hashem for having good shoes to protect his feet — She’asa Li Kol Tzorki (“Who gives me all of my needs”) 9) Then he would start to walk around, and bless Hashem that he can — Hameichin Mitz’adei Gaver (“Who prepares the footsteps of man”) 10) He would put on a gartel for kedusha and tznius, to separate the upper part of the body from the lower half of the body. He would bless Hashem for this — Ozer Yisrael Bigevruah (“Who girds Yidden with strength”) 11) He would cover his head, also for kedusha and tznius — Oter Yisrael Besifara (“Who crowns Yidden with beauty”) 12) He would bless Hashem for giving him mitzvos. He would thank Hashem that although goyim have 7 mitzvos, Yidden have 613 — Shelo Asani Goy (“for not making me non-Jewish”) 13) He would then thank Hashem for not making him a slave, who does not have the same chiyuv to do mitzvos as a free person does — Shelo Asani Aved (“for not making me a slave”) 14) Boys and men would thank Hashem for giving them more mitzvos than a woman, who does not have a chiyuv to keep certain mitzvos that have a specific time — Shelo Asani Isha (“for not making me a woman”) 15) Finally, he would wash his face, wiping away the sleepiness — Hamaavir Sheina Me’einai (“Who removes sleep from my eyes”). This bracha continues with the paragraph of Vihi Ratzon, which finishes with the words Hagomel Chasadim Tovim Le’amo Yisrael. We will IY”H learn about the rest of this bracha tomorrow. |
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The paragraph of Vihi Ratzon, which ends off with a bracha, is really connected to the bracha before, “Hamaavir Sheinah.” This is called a “Bracha Arucha,” a long bracha. Since both brachos are connected, we don’t say amen until after finishing the whole thing. So we don’t say Amen when we hear someone say Hamaavir Sheina; we only answer Amen at the end of “Hagomel Chasadim Tovim Le’amo Yisrael.” |
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לעילוי נשמת הרה״ח ר׳ דניאל יצחק ע״ה בן ר׳ אפרים שי׳ מאסקאוויץ
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Perakim Lamed-Ches and Lamed-Tes of Yechezkel speak about the war of Gog and Magog, a war that will happen when Moshiach comes. The Rambam says that this war will happen in the beginning of the times of Moshiach, and that Eliyahu Hanavi will come before that. Who is Gog? Who is Magog? What kind of war is this? Some Chachomim say it is a Ruchnius’dike war, others say it is a Gashmius’dike war. Some say that Gog and Magog are the names of nations, and others say that it is between two people. The Rambam writes that this is one of the things that we don’t know. In many parts of Torah, the Chachomim have a kabbalah — they heard an explanation from their teachers, who heard it from their teachers, who heard it from Moshe Rabbeinu. But with Milchemes Gog Umagog, along with other things that will happen when Moshiach comes, there is no kabbalah. The Chachomim know only what it says in the Neviim. Even though Yechezkel has many pesukim about this war, they are not written in a clear way. That’s why there are so many different opinions about this war. When Moshiach comes, we will understand what everything meant! See Yechezkel 38 and 39; Rambam Hilchos Melachim perek Yud-Beis halacha beis |
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לע"נ התינוק זאב ארי' ע"ה בן יבלט"א הרה"ח ר' שניאור זלמן שי' גליק
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