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CHUMASH
Parshas Vezos Habracha - Revi'i with Rashi
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Moshe is giving the last brachos to the Yidden before he passes away:
Yissachar and Zevulun work together — Zevulun earns money so that Yissachar can learn Torah. Because Yissachar wouldn’t be able to learn without Zevulun, Moshe gives Zevulun the bracha first!
Shevet Zevulun should be happy when they go out to work, and Shevet Yissachar should be happy when they sit and learn Torah. Talmidei Chachomim from Shevet Yissachar will learn all about the moon, and they will be the ones to decide when it’s Rosh Chodesh, so all of the korbanos will be at the right times!
Zevulun will earn money by sailing big ships on the ocean and doing business with people from other lands. They will be the ones to get the Chilazon from the sea to dye the Techeiles (blue) strings of the Tzitzis! They will also make a Kiddush Hashem with the people they do business with, and many of them will come to the Beis Hamikdash and become Yidden.
Shevet Gad lives on the other side of the Yarden, with non-Jews living right near them. Hashem should help them to be able to have even more land, and to be able to guard the border of Eretz Yisroel so that nobody can come in to fight with the Yidden. Moshe Rabbeinu will be buried in Shevet Gad (nobody knows EXACTLY where), so it will be a zechus for them.
Of course, Gad will do what they promised and fight in front of the other Yidden to get Eretz Yisroel!
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In today’s Tehillim, one of the pesukim speaks about seeing what Hashem does in the world. The posuk says, “Nora Alila al Bnei Adam” — “the things Hashem does for people are amazing!”
Chassidus explains this posuk to be also talking about how Hashem sometimes makes things happen in a way that Yid might do an aveira.
Even though this is a terrible thing to happen, it’s still amazing — because Hashem wants a Yid to come even closer to Him by doing teshuvah.
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TANYA
Igeres Hakodesh Siman Chof
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We learned earlier in this Igeres about how the greatest koach of Hashem is used to create Gashmius, and that in Gashmius, the greatest koach of Hashem is in the lowest part of it — the soil in the earth!
People, animals, and plants, grow and walk and talk much more than soil! Still, they all need the soil to live — they grow and eat things that grow in the soil. Now we understand why! Because the greatest koach of Hashem is in the lowest part of what Hashem created — in the soil — and everything needs part of that koach!
We also finally finish the part that we have of this letter of the Alter Rebbe, where he tells us how we should feel so lucky to have chances to do mitzvos, with Gashmius things — where we can find the greatest koach of Hashem!
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Maybe you have a friend who isn’t doing so well in class. You want to help... but you think — “What is the point? It’s not going to make a difference anyway!”
Or maybe you want to go on mivtzoyim — but you think you probably won’t be able to convince anyone to shake the Lulav anyway.
Today the Rebbe teaches us a very important rule that we need to know, that will help us make the right decisions!
Hashem gives a promise that if you try to help someone else, and try to figure out the best way to do it, and do it in a friendly way, FOR SURE it won’t be a waste! Even if what happens isn’t what you were hoping would happen, you DEFINITELY helped.
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SEFER HAMITZVOS
Shiur #158 - Mitzvas Asei #60, Lo Saasei #100, #98, Asei #62, Lo Saasei #99
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Today we learn five mitzvos that are all talking about what we SHOULD bring and what we CAN’T bring as a korban to Hashem.
1) (Mitzvas Asei #60) The first mitzvah is that a korban has to be a certain age to be a korban. Do you know how old? It has to be at least eight days old (like a baby for his bris)!
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Emor: וְהָיָה שִׁבְעַת יָמִים תַּחַת אִמּוֹ וּמִיּוֹם הַשְּׁמִינִי וָהָלְאָה יֵרָצֶה לְקָרְבַּן
The details are explained in Sifra, and in the end of Mesechta Zevachim.
2) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #100) The second mitzvah is not to bring an animal that was used for certain aveiros. Sometimes when people wanted to act in a non-tznius way, they would pay someone else to help them. If someone used an animal to pay for this kind of aveira, it can’t be brought on the Mizbeiach — it’s not kavod to bring it in front of Hashem.
This mitzvah comes from a posuk in Parshas Ki Seitzei: וּמִיַּד בֶּן נֵכָר לֹא תַקְרִיבוּ
The details of the mitzvah are explained in Perek Vov of Mesechta Temurah.
3) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #98) The third mitzvah is that we are not allowed to bring HONEY or CHOMETZ with a korban. All of the korbanos in the Beis Hamikdash, even the ones with flour cakes, were Kosher L’Pesach (except for one on Shavuos, that we’ll IY”H learn in a different mitzvah)!
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Vayikra, that you might know because we say it in Korbanos every morning! כִּי כָל שְׂאֹר וְכָל דְּבַשׁ לֹא תַקְטִירוּ מִמֶּנּוּ אִשֶּׁה לַה׳
4) (Mitzvas Asei #62) It is a mitzvah to bring salt with every korban. (There was a pile of salt on the ramp of the Mizbeiach for this!)
This mitzvah comes from another posuk in Parshas Vayikra: עַל כָּל קָרְבָּנְךָ תַּקְרִיב מֶלַח
The details of this mitzvah are explained in Sifra, and in a few places in Mesechta Menachos.
5) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #99) It is a mitzvas Lo Saasei that we are not allowed to bring a korban WITHOUT salt.
We learn this mitzvah from different words in the same posuk from Parshas Vayikra: וְלֹא תַשְׁבִּית מֶלַח בְּרִית אֱלֹקֶיךָ
The details are explained in Perek Zayin of Mesechta Zevachim.
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RAMBAM
Hilchos Isurei Mizbeiach
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In today's Rambam, we learn halachos that explain these mitzvos.
Perek Hey: We learn about today’s mitzvah of not bringing a korban with honey or Chometz, and other kinds of things we can’t use for korbanos — like using stolen wood for the fire on the Mizbeiach. We also learn about using salt with the Korban.
Perek Vov: We learn that not only can the ANIMAL not have a mum, but ALL of the things on the Mizbeiach need to be good and not ruined! That means that the wood, the oil, the wine, and all of the other things we use can not be rotten or broken.
Perek Zayin: The Rambam teaches us that it’s not enough just to find an animal without a mum, we need to find the BEST one for Hashem. In fact, ALL of the mitzvos we do for Hashem should be with the best! The shul should look nicer than our house, and we should give poor people from our BEST food and clothes!
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Now we start learning the halachos of Chometz and Matzah. There are eight perakim in this section — four about chometz, then four about matzah and the night of the Seder. This will be followed by the Rambam’s Nusach HaHaggadah.
First we learn about the isur of chometz. Even the tiniest drop is asur! The time when this isur starts is the middle of the day on Erev Pesach.
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There is something very special that happened today, on Yud-Beis Tishrei!
The Medrash tells us that Avraham Avinu had his bris on Yom Kippur. That means that the story we know from Parshas Vayeira — how Hashem appeared to Avraham while he was doing Hachnosas Orchim with the malochim, and the malochim promised him and Sarah a son — happened today, on Yud-Beis Tishrei!
So today has a very special message for us in doing our shlichus: Someone might think, “It can be very hard to go and try to spread Yiddishkeit and Chassidus! They might not want it! It’s not a normal thing to do! Who knows if it will work?”
But today is the day when Avraham was promised that Yitzchak would be born. That was a huge neis — after all, Avraham and Sarah were very old.
We can learn from today that Hashem promises us nissim too! We don’t have to worry even if it doesn’t seem to make sense! Hashem promises us that we will have “children” too, that people WILL want to learn Torah and Yiddishkeit. And not only one — after Yitzchak was born, all of the Jewish people came from him. Our shlichus will also have hatzlacha like that!
See Hisvaaduyos 5742, p. 103
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When Yidden have problems, they daven to Hashem to help them, and they turn to the Rebbe to give them advice and brachos.
Sometimes, the Rebbe would answer people that they need to work on their bitachon. When a person has more bitachon, Hashem will give more bracha in whatever he needs!
So how do we make our bitachon stronger?
The Rebbe would sometimes tell people to learn the section about Bitachon from the sefer Chovos Halevavos. In Chovos Halevavos, it explains that for our bitachon to be strong, there are certain things we need to know:
We need to know that Hashem is in charge of everything that happens in the world. We need to know that Hashem is the ONLY one in charge, and we shouldn’t trust anyone except Hashem. We should remember that Hashem can help us without anyone or anything getting in the way, and that Hashem loves us and cares about us! It is also important for us to check that our behavior is the way Hashem wants it to be.
We speak about all of these things in davening, in Pesukei Dezimra, Birchos Kriyas Shema, and Shema. By speaking about them and thinking about what they mean, we will be able to make our bitachon stronger too. This way, we can be sure that we will bring down all of the brachos that we ask for in our davening!
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Even though Dovid Hamelech wanted to build the Beis Hamikdash himself, Hashem only let his son, Shlomo Hamelech, build the Beis Hamikdash.
It took almost 7 years to build the Beis Hamikdash, and they were finally finished on Zayin Tishrei! The Yidden brought korbanos, ate, drank, and celebrated for a week, until Sukkos. They didn’t even fast on Yom Kippur!
Nowadays, we still have part of their simcha. We make the days between Yom Kippur and Sukkos into days of joy!
During these days, we are not allowed to fast, and we don’t say Tachanun.
See the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, siman Tof-Reish-Chof-Daled
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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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At the end of the Rambam, the Rambam shows us where in the Torah it talks about Moshiach! But the Rambam doesn’t bring any pesukim from Navi, because he says that all of those seforim are FULL of talking about Moshiach!
But if you look in Navi, there are lots of stories that don’t seem to be about Moshiach, and may even seem like the OPPOSITE of Geulah and Moshiach.
The Rebbe explains that if we work hard to learn about what Geulah and Moshiach really are, we will be able to find how every part of Torah really talks about Moshiach!
See Sefer Hasichos 5751 Parshas Acharei-Kedoshim ha’orah 120
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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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