|
|
CHUMASH
Parshas Netzavim - Shvi'i with Rashi
|
|
Moshe Rabbeinu is farbrenging with the Yidden, on his last day in the world — Zayin Adar. He tells them to choose the Torah, which will bring them brachos!
Look Yidden! You have a choice — you can choose to keep the Torah, which will bring you brachos, or you can choose to chas veshalom not keep the Torah, which will bring not good things.
Even though we don’t always see how mitzvos bring good, we should trust Hashem, because that’s what He tells us.
So Yidden, “Uvocharta Bachayim!” “Choose life!” Choose to follow the Torah, so you will be able to live in Eretz Yisroel and get all of Hashem’s brachos!
|
|
|
|
Today’s Tehillim is kapitelach Kuf-Lamed-Hey through Kuf-Lamed-Tes. We also say the three kapitelach for Elul: Pey-Beis, Pey-Gimmel, and Pey-Daled.
Kapitel Kuf-Lamed-Tes 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. Adam HaRishon says: “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 learned in Tanya that you can have two opposite things together if they are for different reasons! Adam Harishon is last in one way, but first in another way:
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 madreigah, because he can do an aveira — going AGAINST what Hashem wants. Only a person can do an aveira — so he’s like the LAST, the lowest thing.
But he is FIRST because he has a neshama, and nothing else that Hashem made has a neshama like a person does! And even his Guf is very special, too.
So that’s how Adam Harishon can be FIRST AND LAST at the same time!
Every Yid, just like Adam Harishon, has the choice to be the first or last in Creation with the choices that he makes.
|
|
|
TANYA
Igeres Hakodesh Siman Yud-Tes
|
|
Today we finish learning this Igeres Hakodesh. We learned the difference between Moshe Rabbeinu, who was so close to Hashem like a person that SEES someone, and tzadikim who taught Kabbalah and Chassidus, who understood Hashem like someone who HEARS about someone.
What was Moshe Rabbeinu able to see?
He could see the chayus of Hashem where the Torah comes from! That’s why Moshe is the one who gave the Torah to Yidden. This chayus is in all the Mitzvos of the Torah which are all Gashmius things.
But inside the Torah is a chayus that is higher than Gashmius — the light of Chassidus, called the light of Torah. This is what the tzadikim like Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai and the Arizal understood in Torah and taught to us!
Now, this light of Torah can only be UNDERSTOOD, even by the great tzadikim who teach Kabbalah and Chassidus. We don’t really know what it is so clearly, what we have now is just a taste. But when Moshiach comes, we will be able to SEE it clearly!
|
|
|
|
In today’s Hayom Yom we learn that someone who gives from his time for tzedakah or strengthening Yiddishkeit will be paid well by Hashem! Even if it takes some time, Hashem will not remain in debt.
How does a person become rich?
Does he just have a good job and work hard?
No! That is just the keili that the person makes to receive the bracha from Hashem. What makes a person rich or have any other good things like to be healthy and have nachas from children, is all from the bracha of Hashem!
How do we get that bracha? Today we learn the secret: By learning Torah and doing mitzvos and acting the way Hashem wants!
When we give our time to do Shlichus — spreading Yiddishkeit and helping Yidden with what they need — that ESPECIALLY brings Hashem’s brachos! Hashem doesn’t owe people things for a long time — everything we do, Hashem pays us back with brachos and good things.
|
|
|
|
Today we learn two more mitzvos — that two more kinds of people are not allowed to eat from the holy Terumah:
1) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #135) A man who didn’t have a bris is not allowed to eat Terumah. (Even though it doesn’t say this mitzvah clearly in the Torah, we understand it because the Torah uses the same kinds of words when it talks about the Korban Pesach, where it DOES say clearly that a person without a bris can’t eat it.)
2) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #136) A kohen who is tamei (like if he has Tzoraas) is not allowed to eat Terumah.
|
|
|
|
Perek Yud: What happens if a person ate Terumah by mistake when he wasn’t allowed to? Usually the halacha is that he has to pay back for what he ate, PLUS an extra fifth. We also learn about the halachos of what happens if someone stole Terumah.
Perek Yud-Alef: Terumah is holy, so we can’t just do whatever we want with it. We need to eat it or use it in a kavodike way. For example, we shouldn’t make a food into a drink.
Perek Yud-Beis: We are careful not to make the Terumah tamei. If it did become tomei, it has to be burned. If we’re not sure if it’s tomei or not, we have a problem! We can’t eat it in case it is tomei, but we can’t burn it because it wouldn’t be kavodik, in case it really isn’t tomei. So what do we do? We leave it alone until it becomes FOR SURE tomei, and then we burn it.
We also learn how the kohanim get their presents. They should go to the place where the produce is stored to get the terumah, but they don’t help pick it or gather it. Terumah should be given with kavod.
|
|
|
|
We are not allowed to sell something that is a surprise. The person we are selling to needs to know exactly what he is getting! If not, it is like gambling, because he might be getting a very good deal or wasting all of his money!
Since sometimes people mean different things with the same words, the Rambam gives rules to know exactly what a person is selling. For example, if a person sells something like “a piece of land to build a house on,” does that mean big enough to build a mansion, or a little sukkah? The Rambam tells us that if the seller doesn’t say anything different, the person who buys it is able to use a certain amount of space.
|
|
|
|
This Shabbos, we don’t give the special Bracha for the coming month the way we do for all the other months. We learned a reason for it in Hayom Yom — because HASHEM bentches this month! (Still, don’t forget that we still say the whole Tehillim and keep the minhag of farbrenging on Shabbos Mevorchim!)
There is another reason why we don’t bentch the new month — to mix up the Satan so that he won’t say bad things about the Yidden chas veshalom on Rosh Hashana.
What does it mean to confuse the Satan? Doesn’t he remember from last year? Why does he get mixed up every year with the same thing again?
We will understand it after this story:
In the first years right after the Rebbe Rashab became Rebbe, a chossid came and asked for a Bracha for something very serious that he needed. The Rebbe Rashab said, “I’m sorry but I can’t help you.”
You can imagine how the chossid felt. He was so upset, he went out of yechidus and started to cry and cry. The Rebbe Rashab’s brother the Raza saw him and asked what happened.
The Raza felt bad for him and went to ask the Rebbe Rashab why the chossid can’t get a Bracha. The Rebbe Rashab said to send him back in, put on his gartel, and gave him a bracha.
Why did the Rebbe Rashab do that? Why didn’t he just give the chossid a bracha when he asked first?
The answer is because the first time the chossid wasn’t a keli for the bracha. Only after he cried and did teshuva did he deserve to receive this important bracha which he needed so much.
The same is true about bentching the Chodesh. Hashem says NO! You cant bench the chodesh. That makes us feel bad, and try to think why, so we do teshuva and become better.
When we do that the Satan becomes mixed up, because he was hoping that Yidden would do Birchas Hachodesh and still act the way they always did. But now because we can’t, we try to become better — and then the Satan has nothing bad to say about Yidden!
Then, like in the story, we become a keli to receive the Bracha which we get from Hashem Himself, which gives us bracha for the whole year!
See Likutei Sichos chelek Chof-Daled, p. 222
|
|
|
▼ Jump to Coloring Books & Downloads ▼
|
|
|
|
On Rosh Hashana, we say the bracha of Shehecheyanu on BOTH days of Rosh Hashana, all over the world.
We don’t say Shehecheyanu at a Bris Milah, because even though the baby got such a special mitzvah, it can still hurt! Because the baby has tzaar, we don’t say the bracha of Shehecheyanu.
But we DO say Shehecheyanu on Rosh Hashana. The fact that we say this bracha on Rosh Hashana teaches us that there is no place for tzaar on Rosh Hashana.
The Rebbe tells us that this is because we have bitachon — we are SURE that Hashem will bentch us with a good year, a Kesiva Vachasima Tova, a Shana Tova Umesuka! That’s why we say Shehecheyanu, which is only said when we have a feeling of simcha!
See Farbrengen Erev Rosh Hashana Tof-Shin-Lamed-Zayin and Tof-Shin-Lamed-Tes
|
|
|
|
Before Musaf on Shabbos, there is a paragraph that starts with the words Av Harachamim. In Av Harachamim, we speak about the many Yidden who gave up their lives Al Kiddush Hashem. We ask Hashem to punish those who killed Yidden. Because Shabbos Mevorchim is such a special and happy time, we don’t say this paragraph.
What about this Shabbos, where Hashem bentches the month? We do the minhagim of Shabbos Mevorchim, like saying Tehillim and having a farbrengen, but we don’t say Birchas Hachodesh. So should we say this paragraph or not?
The answer is that since we don’t say the bracha on the new month, we DO say Av Harachamim this week.
Luach Colel Chabad
|
|
לעילוי נשמת הרה״ח ר׳ דניאל יצחק ע״ה בן ר׳ אפרים שי׳ מאסקאוויץ
שליח כ"ק אדמו"ר נשיא דורנו למדינת אילינוי
|
|
|
|
We learned, based what the Rambam says in Igeres Teiman, that nevuah will return to the Yidden before Moshiach comes!
We learned when this first happened, and which great tzadikim lived then.
Later, in the times of the Nesiim of Chassidus, the Baal Shem Tov, the Alter Rebbe, and the later Rebbeim, again we saw great nissim that they did, and nevuos they said about what would happen in the future! They had the signs the Rambam gives to know if someone is a true Navi.
In our time, the Frierdiker Rebbe (and later the Rebbe too) told us that “Hinei Zeh Moshiach Ba” — Moshiach is about to come!
By following the horaos that they gave us, we will speed up the time when we will see this nevuah come true!
See Sefer Hasichos Tof-Shin-Nun-Alef p. 790 ff
|
|
|
|
|
לע"נ התינוק זאב ארי' ע"ה בן יבלט"א הרה"ח ר' שניאור זלמן שי' גליק
נפטר ב' מנחם אב ה'תשע"ג
|
|
Give children around the world the gift of Kids Chitas!
KidsChitas.org/sponsor
|
|
|
