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CHUMASH
Parshas Lech Lecha - Revi'i with Rashi
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In today’s Chumash, we learn how Avram wins over four very strong kings to save his nephew Lot!
Kedarlaomer, the king of Elam, ruled over the lands of five other kings (Bera from Sedom, Birsha from Amora, Shinav, Shemever, and the king of Bela). For twelve years these five kings allowed Kedarlaomer to rule over them, and then they didn’t want to be ruled! So for thirteen years, they rebelled, not listening to Kedarlaomer anymore.
The fourteenth year of their not listening was the same year Avram came to Canaan. That year, Kedarlaomer had enough! He asked three of his friends, Amrafel, Aryoch, and Sidal, to join with him in Emek Hasidim and fight the five rebelling kings. (Emek Hasidim, the valley of the Sidim, later filled with water and became the Yam Hamelach.)
First, they went to capture more lands. They won over the Refaim, the Zuzim, and the Eimim! They won even over all of the giants there, and the only giant left was Og. They also won over the Chori people, they captured the land that would later belong to Amalek, and they won over the Emori.
Then the five kings that had stopped listening to Kedarlaomer came to Emek Hasidim to fight. The four kings won this war also.
The five kings had to run away! When the king of Sedom was running, he fell into a big hole full of clay. Even though a person usually would sink inside and not be able to live, he was okay! Hashem did this to show the nations that nisim can happen, and now they would believe that Avram was saved from the fiery furnace by a neis also.
Everyone else ran away to the mountains to hide.
Now the group of four kings took everything they wanted from Sedom and Amorah. They also took Lot, who lived there.
Og, who survived the war, ran and told Avram that his nephew was captured. Avram decided that he needs to fight these four kings to save Lot! So Avram made Eliezer, his main servant and student, his general! Avram wasn’t afraid to make a war with the four kings, even though they were so strong and won so many wars before.
Avram won the war with them, and set Lot free and got all of his things back.
When Avram came back, the king of Sedom came out to greet him. All of the people who survived the war called him the prince of Hashem!
Shem (who is also called Malki-Tzedek), the king in Yerushalayim, also came and blessed Avram. Avram knew that there were many leaders of Avodah Zarah, but Shem was the only leader (kohen) of serving Hashem! To show kavod for Hashem, Avram gave Shem maaser from everything he had.
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Today’s shiur Tehillim is kapitelach Nun-Hey to Nun-Tes.
Today’s Tehillim has the posuk “Padah Beshalom Nafshi,” where Dovid Hamelech says that he won his fights and was free in the zechus of the people that davened for him.
When the Alter Rebbe said this Kapitel, he came out of his Golus as well — out of jail — on Yud-Tes Kislev!
The Chachomim explain this posuk in the Gemara, that “When someone learns Torah, it’s like taking the Shechinah and the Yidden out of Golus!” The Alter Rebbe explains this in the Igeres Hakodesh we are learning now in Tanya!
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TANYA
Igeres Hakodesh Siman Chof-Vov
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The Torah is in Golus together with the Shechinah, in the gashmiyus things in the world where we can’t feel that they are from Hashem.
There are two ways to take the Shechinah out of Golus:
1) The first way is to use these gashmiyus things to do what Hashem wants. This way, the kedushah that was in the gashmiyus connects back to Hashem, and comes out of Golus!
2) The second way is to learn about these gashmiyus things in Torah, and understand how the Torah says they should be used. This also brings them out of Golus! It’s even more when the halachos are complicated, and we need to try very hard to figure out what Hashem wants us to do with the gashmiyus. When we finally understand what Hashem wants, we take the Chochmah of Hashem, and the Shechinah that is hiding, and bring them both out of Golus!
Who can do this? Not neshamos in Gan Eden, and not malachim! Only a Yid who is living in the world with a gashmiyus body can do this! We can break the kelipah using our Torah learning, because our guf has this same kelipah. Neshamos and malachim aren’t stuck in Golus, so they can’t do it!
When we learn Torah and figure out how the halachos make sense, we find new things in the Torah! These are called “Chiddushei Torah” — parts of Torah that nobody noticed before! The neshamos in Gan Eden are very excited, and they come to hear our Chiddushei Torah, because they can’t do it themselves!
To make sure that our neshama can do its whole shlichus, we need to make sure to find Chiddushim in our Torah learning!
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The way Hashem created the world is that there are four Ruchnius’dike worlds, where Hashem’s kedusha hides more and more. In this last world, Asiyah, Hashem’s kedusha is almost completely hidden. But in the highest “world,” Atzilus, Hashem’s kedusha isn’t hiding at all! It is felt very strongly.
The Alter Rebbe would feel so connected to the kedusha of that olam when speaking about Atzilus, he couldn’t even say the word! He would say “oiben!” (“above”). And the Alter Rebbe couldn’t even write it… he would write “Atzi–” but was too awed to even finish writing the word!
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Today we learn two mitzvos!
1) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #109) The tenth animal is called Maaser Beheima, and needs to be brought as a korban to Hashem. Today we learn that it is asur to sell it.
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Bechukosai: לֹא יִגָּאֵל
The details of this mitzvah are explained in Mesechta Bechoros and in the beginning of Mesechta Maaser Sheini.
2) (Mitzvas Asei #69) If someone does a certain aveira (an aveira that usually gets punished with Kareis) by mistake, he has to bring a Korban Chatas.
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Vayikra: וְאִם נֶפֶשׁ אַחַת תֶּחֱטָא בִשְׁגָגָה מֵעַם הָאָרֶץ
The details of this mitzvah are explained in Mesechta Horayos and Mesechta Kerisus, and in a few places in Mesechta Shabbos, Shevuos, and Zevachim.
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RAMBAM
Hilchos Bechoros - Shegagos
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In today’s Rambam, we finish learning about the Maaser for animals, and start learning about the Korban that a person brings if they do an Aveira by mistake.
Perek Ches: In the last perek of Bechoros, we see what happens if someone isn’t sure if an animal is Maaser or not. For example if someone counted wrong, or if other animals got mixed together.
The next set of halachos, Hilchos Shegagos, teaches us about five different korbanos that a person brings if he did certain aveiros.
Perek Alef: We learn which aveiros a person does that would make him chayav to bring a Korban Chatas. Usually it is only brought for a Mitzvas Lo Saasei which is punished by Kareis, but not a Mitzvas Asei. One of the exceptions to that is the Korban Pesach.
Perek Beis: The Rambam tells us the halacha in case of a safek, if someone is not sure if he needs to bring a Korban Chatas or not.
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In this perek, we learn about the types of months. Some months are malei (full), with 30 days, and other months are chaseir (missing) with 29 days. During the year the months go in a pattern, one month malei, and then one month chaseir.
But there are two months that can change — Cheshvan and Kislev. Sometimes both are malei, sometimes both are chaseir, and sometimes they follow the regular pattern, with Cheshvan being chaseir and Kislev being malei. This kind of year is called “Kesidran,” “in order,” because then all of the months follow the pattern!
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In today’s Chumash we learn about the war that Avraham Avinu had with the four strong kings, and how he won with amazing nisim because of his Emunah in Hashem.
This year, for Motzei Shabbos Bereishis, a new maamar from the Tzemach Tzedek was printed for the first time. This maamar was said on Simchas Torah 5621, and it also speaks about winning a war.
One of Hashem’s midos is called netzach, victory. The Gemara says that Hashem’s midah of netzach is connected to building Yerushalayim. When Hashem uses His netzach, it takes away anything that is stopping the holy city of Yerushalayim from being a place for Hashem to live forever!
Whenever a king needs to win a war, he opens up his hidden treasures. A king is very rich, with a big beautiful palace and rooms full of treasures. Usually those treasure rooms are locked up safely, and nobody is allowed inside. Even the king himself doesn’t use them. But at a time of war, the king will open up those rooms. He is ready to use any of his treasures in order to win!
This is a mashal for what Hashem does. When Hashem is using His netzach to rebuild Yerushalayim and bring Moshiach, Hashem is also ready to take from His most precious treasures above.
The maamar also explains how with our Avodas Hashem these treasures can be opened for our victory:
Every day when wake up, we need to use our Yiras Shomayim to behave the way a Yid should. Sometimes we are inspired by something we know, sometimes we are excited by the way we feel, but other times we aren’t excited or inspired at all, and our Yiras Shomayim helps us do what we are supposed to.
But that’s only for regular days.
There are other times when we have to fight a war! Sometimes the Yetzer Hara needs to be completely destroyed from its roots, or there is something that is getting in the way of serving Hashem like we are supposed to. Then we need to be ready to fight! We pull out from our “treasure rooms” the deeper Yiras Shomayim that is hidden inside our neshama. That gives us extra koach to do more for Hashem than we are usually able to do!
Then Hashem opens up HIS treasure from above so we will have a real victory.
Very soon, we will have a FULL victory, when Moshiach comes and we will all be safe in Yerushalayim. Then Hashem will again open up His treasures — but not for winning a war, just to use and enjoy them!
The Rebbe would tell us that when a new maamar is printed, it gives us the koach to use it! A new maamar is a treasure from Hashem’s treasure house, to give us the koach to win the war of Golus and bring Moshiach, the real victory!
See maamar Tzidkas Pirzono Beyisrael Tof-Reish-Chof-Alef
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The third posuk of the Twelve Pesukim is Bechol Dor Vador.
In this posuk, we say that we need to imagine that we came out of Mitzrayim!
But how can we feel that we came out of Mitzrayim, if we are still in Golus?
The Rebbe tells us that there IS a Mitzrayim that Hashem frees us from every day! It is the Ruchnius Mitzrayim inside of us.
We all have a Paraoh, a Yetzer Hara, that tries to tell us what to do. Our Yetzer Hara tells us to stop doing mitzvos, to do things that aren’t good for our neshama, or that could hurt another person.
But when we remember the words of Bechol Dor Vador, we will know what to answer our Paraoh!
Bechol Dor Vador — In every generation, even today
Chayav Adam Liros Es Atzmo — We need to see ourselves
Ke’ilu Yatza MiMitzrayim — Like a person who already left Mitzrayim!
We need to know that we are not slaves in Mitzrayim! Paraoh is not in charge of us!
When our Yetzer Hara tells us what to do, we can answer that we are not his slave! We only need to listen to Hashem.
See Der Rebbe Redt Tzu Kinder vol. 5, p. 271
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We say many brachos every day. What do they mean?
There is an opinion in halacha that says that we need to understand what we are saying when we say a bracha, or else it isn’t counted! A bracha thanks Hashem or praises Hashem for something, and if we don’t know what we are saying, we aren’t actually praising Hashem, and then it’s not really a bracha.
There are other opinions that say it is fine even if we just said the words. So even if we didn’t understand what we were saying, the halacha is that we don’t need to say the bracha again.
But lechatchilah, we do need to understand what we are saying whenever we make a bracha, like the first opinion.
We don’t need to know what the exact words mean, especially in long brachos with many details, but we should know what we are thanking or praising Hashem for! It is enough to understand what the beginning part and the end part of each bracha are talking about.
The beginning of each bracha is “Baruch Ata Hashem.” We should think about how we are praising Hashem, the King of the world!
The end of each bracha praises or thanks Hashem for something. For example, when we say “Borei Pri Ha’eitz,” we know that we are thanking Hashem for the delicious fruits we can eat! When we say the bracha “Al Achilas Matzah,” we are praising Hashem for giving us the mitzvah to eat matzah.
See the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, siman Kuf-Pey-Hey
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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 today’s Chumash, we learned about how Avram fought four mighty kings to save his nephew Lot. There is a deeper meaning to this story also — showing that Avram was getting ready for Moshiach!
There is a posuk in Tehillim that says, “Motzosi Dovid Avdi,” Hashem says, “I have found Dovid, My servant.”
The Medrash (Bereishis Rabbah) tells us where Hashem found Dovid Hamelech: In Sedom!
When was Dovid Hamelech in Sedom?
Dovid Hamelech comes from Rus, who was a giyores from the nation of Moav. Moav comes from Lot… who lived in Sedom!
Based on this, seforim explain that the story of Avram’s Mesiras Nefesh in today’s Chumash was not just to save Lot, but to bring the Geulah for the Yidden later!
They explain that the real reason why Nimrod captured Lot was to stop the coming of Moshiach! He knew that Moshiach (who comes from Dovid Hamelech) would come from the family of Lot. He didn’t want the Yidden in the future to be saved by Moshiach!
When Avram heard that Lot was captured, he knew that it was very important to save him. Not only would he be saving his nephew, but he would be saving Malchus Beis Dovid, which would come from his nephew Lot! Moshiach, who comes from Malchus Beis Dovid, would later save ALL of the Yidden!
This is a deeper reason why Avram felt that it was so important to have Mesiras Nefesh to save Lot — and he did!
This is one of the deeper meanings of the story in today’s Chumash — that Avram had Mesiras Nefesh and was shown nisim from Hashem in order to pave the way for Moshiach to come!
When we also have Mesiras Nefesh to bring Moshiach, like when we do a mitzvah even when it is hard for us in order to bring the Geulah faster, we are following in the footsteps of Avraham Avinu!
Yalkut Moshiach U’Geulah Al HaTorah p. 138, from Sefer Beis Yisroel
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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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