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CHUMASH

Parshas Vayeitzei - Shvi'i with Rashi

Lavan and Yaakov make a promise not to hurt each other, and Lavan says goodbye to his children and grandchildren.

Lavan said to Yaakov, “You didn’t have to sneak away! I would never do anything to hurt any of you. They are MY daughters, and MY grandchildren! Let’s make a bris — a promise between us. We will promise not to hurt each other, and Hashem will be the witness.”

Yaakov took a stone to be a matzeivah — a monument, and the family all helped bring stones to make a pile. Yaakov and Lavan both called it “the pile of witnessing” — but Lavan named it in Aramaic (Yegar Sahadusa), and Yaakov said it in Hebrew (Gal-Eid). They also called it “Mitzpah” (the watchtower) to remember that Hashem should watch them both to make sure they are keeping their promise!

What’s the promise?

Yaakov promised not to be mean to Lavan’s daughters, and not marry anyone else (since it might make them upset). They both promised that they wouldn’t pass the place of the pile to hurt each other.

Even though Lavan didn’t help make the pile, he said that it was the pile that HE made, and the matzeivah that HE made!

Lavan promised in the name of Hashem and in the names of his Avodah Zarah, and Yaakov promised in the name of Hashem.

Then Yaakov shechted animals, and they ate a seudah together. Everyone slept on the mountain that night!

In the morning, Lavan kissed his children and grandchildren, and blessed them before he went home.

Yaakov went further to Eretz Yisroel, and the malachim of Eretz Yisroel came to meet him and bring him back! When Yaakov saw them, he said, “This is Hashem’s camp!” He called the place Machanayim (twin camps), because there were now two sets of malochim, the ones that brought him there, and the ones from Eretz Yisroel that would bring him in!

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TEHILLIM

66 - 68

Today’s shiur Tehillim is kapitelach Samach-Vov, Samach-Zayin, and Samach-Ches.

In today’s Tehillim, we have a posuk that says “Boruch Hashem Yom Yom” — “blessed is Hashem, Who gives us so much chesed every day!”

Hillel Hazakein used to say that this posuk teaches us bitachon: If we find a fancy or special food, we don’t have to save it for Shabbos — we can use it today! Hashem gives us chesed every single day! Hashem will for sure give us new brachos tomorrow, with something else special for Shabbos.

The Maggid teaches us that this posuk tells us another reason we don’t have to save a special food only for Shabbos:

This posuk uses the word “Yom” (day) two times, “Yom Yom.” These two words are the two ways we serve Hashem every day! The first “yom” is the kedusha things, like doing mitzvos and learning Torah. The second “yom” is the regular things we do, like eating and sleeping and playing. Those things can and should also be used for Hashem!

A person might think that nice food can only be used on Shabbos, when eating is a mitzvah. But we learn from this posuk that “Boruch Hashem YOM YOM” — BOTH ways of serving Hashem are special! We can also use a nice food on a regular day in a way that will make Hashem happy.

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TANYA

Kuntres Acharon Siman Daled

In today’s Tanya, we finish this long pilpul to understand why doing a mitzvah or learning halachos is more special than just having kavana.

One of things that we learn is that malochim are called with the name of Hashem when they are doing a shlichus (a mission) for Hashem! When Torah is being learned in this world, WE become Hashem’s shluchim to bring Torah into the world — we are also called with the name of Hashem! So the halachos we learn have all of the koach of Hashem to make the world a holy place!

But there is a difference between neshamos and malochim: Malochim can come very close to Hashem, but only neshamos can bring the light of Hashem in the world!

Learning Torah in a way of pilpul (which we just did for the last few days) is a special present we got from Hashem when we got the second luchos! With just the first luchos, we would only be able to learn about the mitzvos. With the second luchos, Hashem gave us an opportunity to reach a much deeper part of Torah by working hard to try to understand something in Torah, in a way of pilpul!

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HAYOM YOM

Yud-Beis Kislev

The bracha that a Tatty says when his son has a Bar Mitzvah is called Baruch Shepetarani. We say it without Hashem’s name, and only say it when we read the Torah, but it doesn’t have to be only on Shabbos.

We learn from the Baal Shem Tov: If we hear someone saying something not nice about another person, we should feel very bad, even if we don’t know who they are talking about!

It could be that what they are saying IS true, and then it should bother us that the person they are talking about is not the way they should be.

Or it could be that what they are saying is NOT true, and then we should be very bothered to hear that a person would say something not true and not nice about someone else!

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SEFER HAMITZVOS

Shiur #217 - Mitzvas Asei #104, #96

Today we learn the same mitzvah as yesterday (Mitzvas Asei #104) — that a man who has a certain kind of tumah that comes from the body which is called Zav, becomes Tomei. This mitzvah includes all of the dinim of how he becomes a Zav and also how he makes others tomei.

We also learn a new mitzvah (Mitzvas Asei #96) — about the kind of tumah that comes from the body of a neveila — a dead animal.

The Rambam also tells us a general rule about all of the mitzvos we learn about someone becoming tomei: It’s not a mitzvah that we need to become tomei, or to be careful not to become tomei. The mitzvah is to follow the dinim of how a person becomes tomei, and to follow the rules which are given for a tomei person, like not going into the Beis Hamikdash or eating from korbanos.

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RAMBAM

Hilchos Metamei Mishkav U'Moshav - Shaar Avos HaTumos

In today’s Rambam, we learn the last Perek about people with a body kind of tumah, and start learning about other kinds of tumah.

Perek Yud-Gimmel: There are some people that are careful about the halachos of tumah and tahara. Such a person is called a Chaver. Other people are called Amei Ha’aretz. If someone’s workers are Amei Ha’aretz, they need to be watched carefully to make sure their products stay tahor. If a chaver wasn’t paying attention to his possessions, they may become tamei.

Perek Alef: The first perek of Hilchos Shaar Avos HaTumah teaches us about today’s second mitzvah: that a neveilah, the dead body of an animal, or part of one, makes other things Tomei. If a kosher animal was shechted, it does not make other things tomei.

Perek Beis: We learn more dinim about the tumah of neveilah. One of the things we learn about in this perek is when a shechitah which was not done properly makes the animal a neveilah.

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RAMBAM PEREK ECHOD

Hilchos Ishus - Perek Yud-Alef

This perek of Rambam teaches us about the amount of the Kesubah for different types of women.

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INYANA D'YOMA

Yud-Beis Kislev

In Tof-Reish-Tzadik-Gimmel, on Yud-Beis Kislev (today!) something very special happened:

It was late at night, and the Frierdiker Rebbe had a dream. In the dream, his father, the Rebbe Rashab came to him and said, “Why are you feeling sad? It’s shining bright in your house at night!”

The Frierdiker Rebbe woke up, and saw the moon shining through his window. But he understood that that wasn’t what the Rebbe Rashab was talking about! So he got up and walked around the house to see what was making his house so bright.

When he came to the library, he saw the Rebbe sitting and learning.

The Frierdiker Rebbe later called the Rebbe and told him about this dream!

One of the lessons we can learn from this is that it’s not just enough to learn Torah, but we need to learn Torah in a way that it will light up the world! How do we do this? When we learn the Rebbe’s Torah and do our shlichus to teach other Yidden too, we can be sure that the Torah we learn will shine!

See Reshimos Choveres Samach-Tes

▼ Jump to Coloring Books & Downloads ▼

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TEFILLAH

Shema and Shemoneh Esrei

In some places, Chassidus says that the main part of davening is Kriyas Shema and the rest is an explanation of it.

But in other places, it says that the main part of davening is Shemoneh Esrei, and the rest of davening is just a hachana for it.

The Rebbe explains how they are BOTH true!

There are two parts of us that come to daven: Our Nefesh Habehamis, and our Nefesh Elokis. What we try to do during davening is to start to want what Hashem wants!

For our Nefesh Elokis, wanting Ruchnius is easy. But that’s not all Hashem wants us to do. Hashem wants us to use its kochos IN THE WORLD, with Gashmius! During davening, the Nefesh Elokis needs to want to use the Gashmius, like Hashem wants. So for the Nefesh Elokis, the main part of davening is Shemoneh Esrei, where we ask Hashem for all of the Gashmius’dike things we need to do to be able to fulfill our shlichus in the world.

For our Nefesh Habehamis, wanting Gashmius is easy. But that’s not all Hashem wants! It needs to want to become close to Hashem, too! So for the Nefesh Habehamis, the main part of davening is Shema. In Shema, we think about how there is nothing except for Hashem, that we love Hashem, and that we are ready to even have Mesiras Nefesh to do what Hashem wants from us.

So, for the Nefesh Habehamis (and the Guf), the main part of davening is Kriyas Shema. For the Nefesh Elokis (the neshama), the main part of the davening is Shemoneh Esrei.

Reshimos Kuf-Nun-Ches

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HALACHOS HATZRICHOS

Kavana in Davening

We should try to have kavana during the whole davening, but there are some parts of davening where we need to be extra careful to have kavana. Here are two of them:

- The first line of Shema
- The very first bracha in Shmoneh Esrei

It used to be that people would have to say Shemoneh Esrei AGAIN if they didn’t say it with kavana, but nowadays we don’t, because we might not have the right kavana then either...

What kavana should we have during the rest of davening? We should try to think of what the words mean. If we can’t think about the meaning of the words, we should at least think about things that make us feel humble and focused on how we are davening to the Aibershter.

We should also get used to having kavana at least in the end of each paragraph of Shmoneh Esrei (like “Baruch Ata Hashem Shomeia Tefillah”).

There are two special things about the end of the brachos:

1) There are 113 words in all of those brachos, and when Chana davened to Hashem to have a baby, she said 113 words!

2) The 113 words in the brachos also hint to the word “Leiv,” heart, because the word “Leiv” (heart) is said 113 times in the Torah. This reminds us to daven with our heart!

See Shulchan Aruch, Hilchos Tefillah, siman 98 and 101

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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GEULAH U'MOSHIACH

Shabbos and Moshiach

One of the things we say about Shabbos in Lecha Dodi is “Sof Maaseh Bemachshava Techilah,” Shabbos was the last part of creating the world, but it was Hashem’s first thought. Hashem wanted from the very beginning that Creation should finish with Shabbos!

The same thing is also true about the Geulah, which is also compared to Shabbos!

Even though the Geulah comes all the way at the end of the world’s time, it is Machshava Techilah — in Hashem’s “mind” first. Hashem planned from the very beginning that Shabbos would come at the end. Geulah is the reason why Hashem created the world!

This is something we can think about when we say or think in our minds the posuk of Bereishis.

Bereishis — In the beginning

Bara Elokim — When Hashem created

Eis Hashomayim — the heavens

Ve’eis Ha’aretz — and the earth.

This is the FIRST posuk in the Torah, and it is about the beginning of the creation of the world! It also reminds us of the purpose of it all — to bring the time of Moshiach, and encourages us to do all we can to bring Moshiach NOW!

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