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CHUMASH
Parshas Metzora - Shvi'i with Rashi
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For a Zavah to become completely tahor, after she goes to the mikvah, she has to bring two birds to Hashem as korbanos.
Now we have learned how a person can become tahor from tumah that comes from the body!
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In today’s Tehillim, Kapitel Mem-Vov talks about how when Moshiach comes, Hashem will make no more wars. The world will be quiet and peaceful. “Lechu Chazu Mifalos Hashem Asher Sam Shamos BaAretz” — “Go look at what Hashem did — Hashem made the world empty (of war).”
The Alter Rebbe explains in Torah Ohr that this isn’t just talking about wars with soldiers and guns, it’s talking about fighting with our Yetzer Hara too! Nowadays we always need to fight with our Yetzer Hara to do Mitzvos and act the way the Torah teaches us, because Hashem wants us to work hard to become better Yidden.
But when Moshiach comes, we will rest from our fighting with the Yetzer Hara, just like we rest on Shabbos from our hard work all week!
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Mem
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We learned that the kavana we have in learning, davening, and doing mitzvos is like the wings of a bird that help it fly.
In another part of Torah, when we learn about kosher, we learn an interesting halacha about wings: If a bird’s wings were broken or removed, it is still kosher.
When something in Torah is a mashal for something else, it means they really are connected. Since kavana is compared to wings of a bird, we can learn something about it from the halachos in Torah about wings.
With a bird, the main part is the body, not the wings. The same is true with mitzvos! The main part is doing the mitzvah itself. Even if you don’t have the wings of kavana, the “bird” is still kosher — the mitzvah is still good.
Still, it is only complete when we have the mitzvah WITH its wings — with kavana!
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Every neshama is sent down to the world with a special shlichus that it needs to do. We aren’t born just to do things that are easy for us — we need to find the things in ourselves that are NOT the way they should be, and our neshama should fix them.
How do we know which things need to be fixed? There’s a posuk from Tehillim that says, “MeiOivai Techakmeini Mitzvosecha, Ki Le’Olam Hi Li.” One of the ways to explain this posuk is, “From my enemies I become wise about Your mitzvos, because they (the mitzvos) are always with me.”
How do we become wise to figure out which mitzvos are our job to work on? By thinking about the not-good midos that we have, our “enemies.” When we see what is not good in our behavior and hard for us, we will know that those things are what our neshamos need to work hard to fix most!
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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #235) is not to lend a Yid anything with interest. “Interest” means that he has to pay back more than what you lent him. For example, you can’t give your brother a lollipop and tell him he needs to give you back TWO lollipops at the next Shabbos party.
The Torah tells us this mitzvah many times, showing how important it is! One of those pesukim is in Parshas Behar: אֶת כַּסְפְּךָ לֹא תִתֵּן לוֹ בְּנֶשֶׁךְ וּבְמַרְבִּית לֹא תִתֵּן אָכְלֶךָ
The mitzvah is explained in Perek Hey of Mesechta Bava Metziah.
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more halachos about paying back loans.
Perek Tes-Zayin: When you pay back a loan, it is important to know that until the person GETS the money, it’s YOUR job to make sure nothing happens to it. For example, if Reuven borrows a pencil from Shimon, and then puts it back on Shimon’s desk when he’s done, it’s Reuven’s job to watch over the pencil until Shimon gets back to his desk. If it rolls off the desk and disappears, Reuven needs to pay him back for the pencil.
BUT, if Shimon said “Just put it on my desk when you’re finished,” then even if it disappears, it’s not Reuven’s fault.
Perek Yud-Zayin teaches us halachos about what happens if someone passes away, and his children find a note saying that someone owed him money. If the other person says he paid already, he has to take a shevuah (a very serious Torah promise) that he is telling the truth.
One interesting halacha is that if someone has a shtar written in Australia, and he brings the shtar to get paid back in America, he needs to pay back Australian dollars and not American dollars. But if it doesn’t say where it is written, and the person says it is for Australian dollars, he needs to make a shevuah that the shtar was really written there.
Perek Yud-Ches teaches us about when a person can’t pay back the loan, and there was no mashkon: We can take away his property to pay back the loan, even property that he sold already.
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This perek teaches us when another person can get this kind of Tumah too, from them. We also learn about when a woman finds out that she was Tomei — sometimes we say that she was probably Tomei the day before too, and just didn’t find out until now. So everything she touched since yesterday is Tomei too!
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Shabbos Hagadol is a day connected with special nisim for the Yidden.
The Rebbe teaches that there are important lessons we need to learn from Shabbos Hagadol, about how we need to change the world!
When the Yidden were in Mitzrayim, they could see that Paraoh wasn’t doing his special mitzvah, of listening to Hashem and letting the Yidden go.
But how could they get Paraoh to change his mind? They couldn’t go to him in his palace and tell him that he was making a big mistake!
But they DID have a way to get Paraoh to change his mind — and that’s what happened on Shabbos Hagadol!
The Yidden proudly did the mitzvah Hashem gave them. They tied the sheep to their bed for the Korban Pesach, and didn’t hide it from the Mitzriyim. Even though they knew the Mitzriyim would be upset, they were not afraid and did what Hashem told them to!
When the goyim saw this, they got scared! They started fighting with each other, and tried to force Paraoh to change his mind and keep the mitzvah he was supposed to do!
That is an important lesson for us today too:
We have an achrayus not only to teach Yidden about the Torah, but to make sure that the whole world, even the goyim, are acting the way Hashem wants. Sometimes, we are able to teach the goyim about their mitzvos, the Sheva Mitzvos Bnei Noach. But other times, we have no way to help the goyim do the right thing.
Except that we DO! When we proudly act the way Hashem tells us to, and are strong in our Yiddishkeit, that will have an influence on the goyim too! It will effect the world around us to behave the way Hashem wants them to.
And just like that is what brought the Geulah from Mitzrayim, when we stand proud in our Yiddishkeit, it will bring the Geulah from this Golus too!
See farbrengen Shabbos Hagadol Tof-Shin-Lamed-Beis
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In Biur Tefillah, we are learning about the Haggadah. In this shiur and the next, we will IY”H go through the general structure of the part of the Haggadah where we tell over the story of Yetziyas Mitzrayim, which is Maggid. We say much of this on Shabbos Hagadol after Mincha, which is when the nisim started!
On the night of Pesach, it is a mitzvah to tell over the story of Yetziyas Mitzrayim.
Even though the exact nusach of the Haggadah comes from the time of the Geonim, the main setup of the seder and what we tell over on the night of Pesach is written in the Mishnah and Gemara.
The Mishnah says that after Mah Nishtana, the father should explain Yetziyas Mitzrayim to his son, based on what his son is able to understand.
He should tell the story in a way of “Maschil Begnus Umesayem Beshvach,” starting with the shameful part and finishing with praise. (There is more than one opinion what this is talking about. One opinion says it means starting with the fact that Yidden were slaves to Paraoh, and ending off that Hashem took us out with great nisim! Another opinion says we start the story even before that, with Avraham Avinu, who came from a family who served Avodah Zarah, and that Hashem kept His promise to Avraham and took the Yidden out of Mitzrayim with great wealth! The halacha is like the first opinion so we start with the Yidden being slaves in Mitzrayim; but afterwards we also tell the story from the beginning, about Avraham Avinu, like the second opinion!)
Then, the Mishnah tells us that we explain a certain paragraph from the Torah, posuk by posuk. This paragraph starts with the words “Arami Oved Avi.” When a person brought Bikurim to the Beis Hamikdash, he would praise Hashem that he had a chelek of Eretz Yisroel and could bring Hashem these fruits! In this paragraph, he would thank Hashem for taking us out of Mitzrayim, so we could later come to Eretz Yisroel.
During our seder, we explain each posuk of this paragraph according to a Medrash, the Sifri.
This is the main part of the Haggadah, which we also say on Shabbos Hagadol, and IY”H we will see the rest of Maggid in the next shiur
See footnotes in the Rebbe’s Haggadah, Maggid
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Don’t forget the Nasi!
~
One of the reasons why we call the Shabbos before Pesach “Shabbos HaGadol” (the big Shabbos) is that the Rav gives a big drasha on Shabbos, teaching about the halachos of Pesach for those who were not able to learn it themselves.
If you’re not going to a drasha, it is a good idea to review the halachos of Pesach on your own!
Here are some places you can review the halachos:
- Pesach Day-By-Day (Horav Yosef Yeshaya Braun)
- Halacha Newsletter (Horav Shmuel Lesches)
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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 Sefer Micha, the Navi tells us a promise Hashem made about the Geulah: “Kimei Tzeischa Me’Eretz Mitzrayim Arenu Niflaos!” “I will show you wonders like in the days of Yetziyas Mitzrayim!”
According to the Zohar, really, the nissim of the Geulah will be much GREATER than the nissim of Yetziyas Mitzrayim!
So why does Hashem say that the nissim will be like then?
Before Yetziyas Mitzrayim, there was no such thing as Geulah. It was something impossible! But when Hashem took the Yidden out of Mitzrayim, Geulah wasn’t impossible anymore. At the right time, the Geulah could just happen!
So the Geulah we’re about to have is connected to the Geulah from Mitzrayim. It is only because of the first Geulah from Mitzrayim that it is possible for us to have the incredible nissim of the Geulah with Moshiach!
See the Maamar Kimei Tzeischa, Yud-Alef Nisan 5742 (Sefer Hamaamarim Melukat)
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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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