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CHUMASH
Parshas Shemos - Rishon with Rashi
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We are now starting a new Chumash, Chumash Shemos!
In the last Chumash, Chumash Bereishis, we learned about the creation of the world. We learned about the Avos, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, and his children the Shevatim. We learned the things that happened to them and what they did.
All of this is a preparation for what we will learn in this next Chumash: We will learn how Hashem takes us out of Mitzrayim and gives us the Torah so we become a nation! But first we learn about the Golus Mitzrayim that the Yidden had to go through for that to happen.
In today’s Chumash, we learn how the Golus starts. The Yidden grow and become a big nation, and Paraoh makes decrees to try to stop them from growing.
First the Torah reviews that when the Yidden came down to Mitzrayim, there were only 70 people. But they had a bracha to have many children, and many times the mothers would have six babies at a time! Soon Mitzrayim was full of Yidden.
Yaakov’s sons were getting older now, and they all passed away (Levi passed away last). Unfortunately, as time went on, many of the Yidden stopped keeping all of the mitzvos — except for the families in Shevet Levi.
Now a new Paraoh, who didn’t know Yosef, became king. He said he was afraid that the Yidden would fight against the Mitrziyim, since there were so many Yidden. He wanted to do something to stop them!
Paraoh asked his advisors what to do. Bilam, who was one of his advisors, gave Paraoh a sneaky idea that would stop the Yidden from having a lot of babies, and would get them to start to act like the Mitzriyim. (Yisro, another advisor, told Paraoh not to do it, but Paraoh didn’t listen to him. Because Paraoh was upset at him, Yisro had to run away to Midyan.)
Paraoh decided to do Bilaam’s idea: He called all of the Yidden to come, and when everyone was there, he started making bricks. Everyone of course started to help — everyone except for Shevet Levi, who stayed home to learn Torah. At the end of the day, the Mitzriyim told the Yidden to count how many bricks they made. “You will have to make this many bricks EVERY day!” they told the Yidden. That’s how they tricked them into becoming slaves.
The Mitzriyim made the Yidden work very hard to build the cities of Pisom and Ramses. But Bilam’s plan wasn’t working. Even though the Yidden were working so hard, they still kept on having lots of children!
The Mitzriyim were very frustrated! They thought of another idea: Now the Yidden would have to work even HARDER, and do work they weren’t used to doing. This way the parents would be too tired to have more children. But the Jewish women knew that having children is the most important thing!
Paraoh saw that the Yidden were STILL having children! He realized that his plan wasn’t working. Then his advisors told him that the person who would take the Yidden out of Mitzrayim would be born soon!
So he came up with a new plan, to stop the Yidden from growing and to make sure that nobody would take the Yidden out of Mitzrayim. He would kill all of the baby boys, and take the girls away so they wouldn’t know they were Yidden. Paraoh called the Yiddishe midwives (women who help Mommies have babies), Shifra (Yocheved, Amram’s wife) and Puah (Miriam, their daughter).
Paraoh told Shifra and Puah to kill all of the Yiddishe baby boys, and only to let the baby girls live. Of course Shifra and Puah didn’t listen! They helped the baby boys to stay healthy instead.
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Today’s shiur Tehillim is kapitelach Tzadik through Tzadik-Vov.
The first kapitel in today’s Tehillim was written by Moshe Rabbeinu. Dovid Hamelech later put it in Tehillim. It starts with the words “Tefillah LeMoshe, Ish HaElokim” — “This is a Tefillah by Moshe Rabbeinu, a person of Hashem.”
Why is Moshe Rabbeinu called a “person of Hashem”?
Hashem is everything and everything is Hashem — but we can’t see Him! Hashem made the world because He wanted Yidden to act in a certain way that will make Hashem happy here.
But if we can’t see Hashem, how do we know how to act? That’s why Hashem gave Yidden a Moshe Rabbeinu, who is “a person of Hashem.” A Moshe Rabbeinu has two parts — one part of him that is “of Hashem” — very close to Hashem so he knows what Hashem wants, but he is also “a person” — so he can teach us what we need to do!
There is ALWAYS a Nasi, like Moshe Rabbeinu, who helps the Yidden do what Hashem wants at that time. Now, of course, the Rebbe is our Moshe Rabbeinu!
The Rebbe told us that we are about to see the Geulah, and we need to learn and teach about it! We need to spread Yiddishkeit and Chassidus everywhere, and ask Hashem for Moshiach NOW!
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Yud-Beis
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Today’s shiur in Tanya is a very exciting section! It is the beginning of Perek Yud-Beis, where we start to learn about the Beinoni. After all of the introductions of the past Perakim — about the Yetzer Tov, the Yetzer Hara, a Tzadik and a Rasha — we are finally ready to learn about the Beinoni, which is the whole point of the Sefer HaTanya, Sefer Shel Beinonim!
In today’s Tanya, the Alter Rebbe starts to teach us about the beinoni:
A beinoni is when someone only lets the Yetzer Tov (Nefesh Elokis) use the body. The Yetzer Tov is the only one who decides what the person should do — to learn Torah, to do mitzvos, and do everything else with the Gashmius’dike things to serve Hashem — L’sheim Shomayim!
A beinoni doesn’t let their Yetzer Hara (Nefesh Habehamis) have even one chance to use the body to think or say or do any aveiros or to be involved in anything that is not for the purpose of serving Hashem. That’s why it says about a beinoni that he never did any aveiros — because he never let his Yetzer Hara have even once chance!
The Rebbe explains that it doesn’t mean that if we did an aveira we can never be a beinoni. It means that the way we are now, it’s impossible for us to do an aveira! We want to do what Hashem wants so much, that it feels now like we could never do an aveira.
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In today’s Hayom Yom, we learn about the Chumash part of Chitas and where it comes from!
Chassidim have a minhag that started from the Alter Rebbe, that every day we learn part of Chumash with Rashi. The Rebbeim also kept this minhag!
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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #266) is that we aren’t allowed to even think about how much we like something that belongs to another person, and to let ourselves feel jealous of it.
We learn this from a posuk in Parshas Vaeschanan, from the way Moshe Rabbeinu chazered the Aseres Hadibros in Chumash: וְלֹא תִתְאַוֶּה בֵּית רֵעֶךָ
The Torah tells us that thinking about how jealous we are of someone else’s things is an aveira, and it will bring us to do other aveiros! We will start wanting it so much that we will figure out ways to get it. Either it will make us do the aveira which we learned yesterday, of convincing the other person to sell or trade it to us. Or else, if he doesn’t agree, it will make us take it from him by force, which is the aveira of robbing!
The Rambam tells us to think about an example of this from Navi, with King Achav and the field of Navos:
Achav was one of the kings of Yisrael, who lived during the times of the first Beis Hamikdash. One of the main Neviim of his time was Eliyahu Hanavi.
Next to Achav’s palace was a beautiful vineyard that belonged to a man named Navos. Achav liked this vineyard very much, and decided that it would be a perfect place for him to plant a garden, since it was so close to his palace. One day, he tried to convince Navos to sell it to him, but Navos refused. Achav tried to trade the vineyard for a better field somewhere else, but Navos didn’t want to do that either. He had gotten the vineyard as a yerusha from his father, and he didn’t want to give it up.
Achav went home in a very bad mood. His wicked wife, Izevel, saw that something was making Achav upset, and asked him what was wrong. When Izevel heard that Navos didn’t want to let Achav have his field, she got upset too! “You are the king! You can have whatever you want! Don’t be sad, because I will make sure to get the field for you.”
Izevel arranged that two false witnesses would say that Navos had said things against Hashem and against Achav. For this kind of aveira, a person deserves to be killed with Sekilah, being stoned.
Once Navos was killed, Izevel went to Achav and told him happily that now he could have the vineyard.
Eliyahu Hanavi came to Achav and told him that because of this aveira, he did not deserve to be king. He would be killed and not even get buried with kavod.
When Achav heard this, he felt very bad. He tore his clothes and did teshuvah.
Hashem then told Eliyahu Hanavi that because of his teshuvah, Achav himself would not be punished, but his melucha would not last.
From this story of Achav and Navos, we see that since Achav was busy thinking about how much he wanted the field (the aveira of Lo Sisaveh), it led him to try to get Navos to sell it to him (the aveira of Lo Sachmod), and finally, when he couldn’t get it that way, he took it by force (the aveira of Lo Sigzol) — and even worse.
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RAMBAM
Hilchos Gezeilah VaAveidah
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In today’s Rambam, we will finish learning about gezeilah, and start to learn about Hashovas Aveidah!
Perek Yud: One of the things we learn is what happens if a person robbed a field and then fixed up part of it, or planted or built something there.
Perek Yud-Alef teaches us the halachos about Hashovas Aveidah, returning something that someone lost. Keeping someone from losing money or property is also part of the mitzvah of Hashovas Aveidah!
Perek Yud-Beis explains what we do if WE will lose money by keeping someone else from losing money. There are times we get paid for what we lost. We also learn that if we DON’T lose money or time, we can’t ask for money for doing the mitzvah.
Let’s say a person is walking down the street with a jar of honey, and then his jar cracks and the honey starts to spill! “Oh no! My honey is all going to spill on the ground!” he cries.
“Don’t worry,” says someone else near him. “I have empty jars! You can put your honey in my jar.”
“Oh, thank you, thank you!” says the honey person.
“But you’ll need to pay me half of your honey for using my jar!” says the empty jar person.
“Fine, just save my honey!” says the honey person.
Really the honey person DOESN’T need to pay him half of his honey. Because it is a mitzvah to help someone, and the other person’s jar was empty anyway! Even though the honey person said he will pay, the jar person only gets paid for the time he spent helping.
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One halacha in this perek is that if a person forces a girl to act like they are married, without really getting married according to Torah, he has to really marry her. Even if she is sick or has a problem that might make someone not want to marry her, he has to marry her anyway if she wants.
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The Frierdiker Rebbe was sent into Golus in Kostroma by the Russian government, on Gimmel Tammuz Tof-Reish-Pey-Zayin. On the train, before leaving, the Frierdiker Rebbe said a sicha to all of the Chassidim who had come to say goodbye.
In the sicha, the Frierdiker Rebbe spoke about something he had heard from his father, the Rebbe Rashab. “Hashem put us into Golus, and Hashem is the one Who will take us out of Golus when Moshiach comes! But all of the nations need to know: Only our BODIES are sent into Golus, under the rulership of other nations. But our Neshamos are NOT under their rule!
“So anything that has to do with our neshama, with Yiddishkeit, is not for the nations to tell us about! Any mitzvah, any minhag, has nothing to do with a government or any ruler!”
In today’s Chumash, we learn how the Yidden go into Golus Mitzrayim. Even though they were already living in Mitzrayim, only now does Paraoh make decrees, and the hard Golus starts.
At the beginning of today’s Chumash, we review the names of the Shevatim and their children who went into Golus.
Even though we already know their names from Parshas Vayigash, the Torah tells us their names again to teach us an important lesson in how to have hatzlacha in Golus! We will have koach in Golus by knowing that it is only the NAMES of the Yidden who went down to Mitzrayim.
What is a name? If we are all by ourselves in a room, we don’t need to use our names. Our names are for other people to call us. They aren’t US.
When the Yidden go into Golus, the Torah tells us that the NAMES of the Yidden are what went down to Mitzrayim. But the Yidden themselves, the neshama of the Yidden, did NOT go into Golus! Paraoh could make decrees about their bodies, but not about their neshamos!
This is also the way it is with the Golus we are in now. We need to remember that our neshamos are not in Golus. By doing the things that make our neshama strong, that will help us to feel higher than the Golus. By davening and learning Torah, and doing mitzvos with chayus, we will have the strength to overcome the hardships of Golus.
Then we will be able to complete the mission Hashem sent our bodies into Golus to do, and like the Yidden in Golus in Mitzrayim, with great nissim Hashem will take us out of Golus again!
See Likutei Sichos chelek Vov, p. 12, haara 31
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Davening is called Avodah Shebelev, avodah with the heart. We fill our heart with feelings of Kabolas Ol and closeness to Hashem.
If our heart is already full of proud thoughts and gaava, we can’t do that. When a person thinks that he is very special and important, those thoughts fill up his heart. He isn’t able to think very much about Hashem at all!
That’s why, before davening, we need to make ourselves feel humble. This way our heart will be able to be sensitive to kedusha and be ready to stand before Hashem.
One way we can be humble is to compare ourselves to another person, someone that we think is not very special at all. When we first look at him, we might feel very proud of ourselves. We are much better than he is, right?
The Alter Rebbe shows us how to follow what our Chachomim teach us, “Vehevei Shfal Ruach Bifnei Kol Ha’adam,” “you should be humble from EVERY person.” Even looking at this person can make us feel humble.
Think about how this person has many nisyonos. There are parts of his life that are very hard, and many things he struggles with. Many things that are easy for us are hard for him! When we look at him, we sometimes think, “He really shouldn’t do that. That’s a really important mitzvah! How can he behave that way?”
But think about how hard it must be for him. We need to ask ourselves if WE work as hard in the things that are hard for US. We expect this person to try very hard to behave. Do WE try as hard when it comes to OUR nisyonos? Are we also working as hard in OUR Avodas Hashem?
We can also look at how a goy may be acting better than us, even though he doesn’t have a Torah to teach him how. For example, we can look at how Dama ben Nesina had Kibud Av Va’em. Is our Kibud Av Va’em as beautiful as his?
The Chachomim tell us, “Ain Omdim Lehispallel Ela Mitoch Koved Rosh.” Rashi explains that this means we need to prepare for davening with thoughts of humility. In Tanya, the Alter Rebbe gives us ways to think that will help us daven properly, with an open heart. Even though the Alter Rebbe is saying this about davening, of course we need to keep this way of thinking with us during the rest of the day too, so we look at other people and treat them in a humble way!
See Tanya Perek Lamed
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Be’ezras Hashem, we will start to learn some of the halachos of Shabbos. As we know, there are 39 types of work that done used to build the Mishkan, and those are the 39 melachos that we are not allowed to do on Shabbos.
One of the melachos that comes up often on Shabbos is borer, choosing things, but many people don’t even realize when something is borer!
Imagine pouring a bunch of colored jelly beans into a bowl for Shabbos party. You love most of them, but really don’t like the black ones. There are only a few black ones in the bowl, though. Can you take them out and put them back in the bag?
Imagine a pile of clean laundry that you forgot to put away before Shabbos. Yay! You see your favorite shirt! Can you pull it out of the pile and put it on the top so you remember where it is?
Imagine that your little brother just poured out the box of Legos and the box of Clicks. What a mess! Can you sort out the toys and put them into the right boxes?
IY”H we will start learning the halachos of borer. Even though jelly beans, clothes, and toys aren’t muktza, they still can be a problem of borer. We need to know the halachos very well to be able to choose things on Shabbos!
We will learn what the melacha of borer is, and when it applies. Then we will know when and how we can choose things on Shabbos.
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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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We learned in today’s Hayom Yom that the Alter Rebbe asked us to learn Chumash with Rashi every day.
But why just Rashi? There are so many important explanations on the Chumash! There is Ibn Ezra, Ramban, Kli Yakar, Or Hachayim, and many more!
The Rebbe gives us three reasons:
1) It’s in Shulchan Aruch! In Shulchan Aruch, it says that when we are Maavir Sedra before Shabbos, the best way to review the parsha is with Rashi. (If we already learned Chitas, we don’t have to do it with Rashi again!)
2) It has secrets of Torah! We learned in another Hayom Yom that Rashi is “Yeina Shel Torah” — the wine (hidden secrets) of Torah.
3) It gets us ready for the Geulah! Rashi explains peshat, the basic meaning of the Torah. Rashi wants us understand the Peshuto Shel Mikra, the peshat of every word of Torah.
And what about the hidden secrets? They’re all hidden inside the peshat! In many sichos, the Rebbe showed us how to find some of the secrets inside of Rashi.
When Moshiach comes, the hidden secrets of the Torah won’t be hidden anymore — we’ll be able to see them in the “basic” parts of life, the regular things we do! So learning Rashi and the Torah secrets inside helps us get ready for Moshiach, when we will be able to see the secrets of Torah in everything!
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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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