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CHUMASH
Parshas Vayechi - Chamishi with Rashi
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Yaakov is giving brachos to the Shevatim before he passes away. In today’s Chumash, Gad, Asher, Naftali, and Yosef get brachos.
Yaakov gives Gad his bracha. His Shevet will be very strong — they will go fight and win, and none of them will get hurt! (That’s exactly what happened when the Yidden came into Eretz Yisroel!)
Asher’s bracha is that the place he gets in Eretz Yisroel will grow a lot of olives, and the olive oil will be used to make food for kings!
Naftali gets a special bracha, that he will be like a deer. The fruit that grows in his part of Eretz Yisroel will grow as fast as a deer can run, and the soldiers from his Shevet will run to fight as quickly as a deer! The people of Naftoli will thank Hashem for their bracha.
Yaakov tells Yosef that he is very handsome. Since he made sure to block Esav from seeing his mother Rochel, he became a very important person in Mitzrayim — second to the king!
Yosef gets a bracha, that his family will have many children, like a grapevine is full of grapes. Each of his sons (Menashe and Efrayim) will grow to be a shevet as big as the other Shevatim, and they won’t get an Ayin Hara!
Yaakov reminds Yosef that his brothers weren’t nice to him, and neither was Potifera and his wife. But still, his dreams came true, because he trusted in Hashem. He became second to the king, and took care of the whole family in Mitzrayim.
Yaakov said to Yosef, “Since — with Hashem’s help — you didn’t listen to Potifera’s wife and do an aveira, Hashem will help you and make sure there is water for your fields, and that you give birth to healthy children.
“Hashem gave me (Yaakov) even more brachos than the other Avos! Avraham and Yitzchak got a bracha only for Eretz Yisroel, but like my mother wanted, I got a bracha to spread out all over. These brachos should go to Yosef.”
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Today’s Tehillim is kapitelach Ayin-Tes to Pey-Beis.
In Kapitel Pey (80) Dovid Hamelech says, “Gefen Mimitzrayim Tasia, Tegaresh Goyim Vati’ta’eha” — “You took a vine out of Mitzrayim, You pushed out the goyim and planted it.” This is talking about the Yidden, who are compared to a vine. Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim and “planted” us in Eretz Yisroel.
The Frierdiker Rebbe said a maamar on this posuk, which the Rebbe later explained (http://chabad.org/1878854). The Chachomim say that we only dig up a vine to plant it somewhere where it will grow even better! Similarly, Hashem only puts a Yid in a new place because there he can have even more hatzlacha.
That’s how it was when Hashem took the Yidden out of Mitzrayim and brought them to Eretz Yisroel, and that’s also how it is whenever Hashem puts us with Hashgacha Protis in a new place! It is so we will have hatzlacha in bringing Yiddishkeit to our new place, like a vine that makes wine that brings happiness to everyone around!
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Yud
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After we learned about the two nefashos, the Yetzer Tov and Yetzer Hara, the Alter Rebbe is explaining to us how the Tzadik, Beinoni, and Rasha use these two nefashos.
In this perek, we are learning about the two different levels of tzadik: a Tzadik She’aino Gamur (not complete tzadik), and a Tzadik Gamur (complete tzadik).
In today’s Tanya, the Alter Rebbe tells us about a Tzadik She’aino Gamur — someone who works hard to make his Nefesh Elokis so strong that the Yetzer Hara stops bothering him!
A Tzadik Gamur is able to completely change the Yetzer Hara to become kedusha, because of his strong love for Hashem.
A Tzadik She’aino Gamur is a tzadik who has a very strong love for Hashem, but it is not strong enough to completely change his Yetzer Hara to kedusha. It is enough to keep the Yetzer Hara from having a say, but deep down it is still there.
There are many levels for this kind of tzadik. The Gemara says that 18,000 tzadikim come before Hashem every day!
But the Gemara tells us that Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai said, “I saw the Bnei Aliyah, and they are very few.” The Bnei Aliyah are those who are a Tzadik Gamur, which is something very rare!
A Tzadik Gamur has the strongest love for Hashem possible, and not only does his Yetzer Hara not have a say, his Yetzer Hara is changed into kedushah!
In the introduction to the Zohar, there is a story of how R’ Chiya wanted to come into the chamber of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai in Gan Eden. A Bas Kol said that only someone who transformed darkness into light (who changed even their Yetzer Hara into good — a Tzadik Gamur) can come into this chamber.
We see from this story that the Bnei Aliyah, a Tzadik Gamur, is something unusual, even among tzadikim.
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It can be hard for a neshama to feel ruchnius. The world is full of so much kelipah and narishkeit!
In a Yechidus, the Tzemach Tzedek told a chossid named Reb Hendel about 3 different parts of Torah that can help his neshama:
1) When the neshama wants to feel more connected to Hashem, learn Zohar, because Zohar makes the neshama feel elevated!
2) When the neshama wants to get excited about Hashem and His mitzvos, learn Midrash, because it wakes up the heart!
3) When the neshama feels like it got “dirty” from the kelipah in the world, say Tehillim with tears, and that will wash and clean the grobkeit of the guf.
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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #245) is not to rob another person. What’s the difference between stealing (geneivah) and robbing (gezeilah)? Stealing is when a person takes something in a secret way, and robbing is taking something away from another person by force. Both are asur, of course, but each is a separate mitzvah.
We learn this from a posuk in Parshas Kedoshim: לֹא תִגְזֹל
The halachos of this mitzvah are explained in Perakim Tes and Yud of Mesechta Bava Kama.
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RAMBAM
Hilchos Gezeilah VaAveidah
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In today’s Rambam, we start to learn the halachos about how a robber pays back what he robbed.
Perek Alef teaches us what robbery is, and the general rule of how a robber pays back. We also learn that it is asur to be jealous of something someone has and try to get the other person to sell it. The Torah tells us that if someone does that, he will eventually rob!
Perek Beis explains what happens if the thing that was stolen changed after it was stolen, like if the robber stole a cow and it got bigger and fatter, or he stole raw stones and polished them into shining gems. Sometimes we say he needs to give it back, and other times he pays the owner back instead.
Perek Gimmel teaches us what happens if a robber stole something and broke it or lost it. In this kind of case, the robber has to pay back the amount it was worth. How much does he pay back if the price for that kind of thing changed from when he stole it? This perek also includes the halachos about other things which are called gezel, like using someone else’s things without permission.
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more halachos about chalitzah.
One halacha is that these mitzvos only need to be done if the yavam is ALLOWED TO get married to her. For example, if the almanah’s brother-in-law is already married to her sister, he doesn’t need to do chalitzah. That’s because he wouldn’t be able to marry her even if he wanted to, since the Torah doesn’t let us marry two sisters.
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One time, there was a little girl who went with her father to 770. He had just bought her a little present, a Tzivos Hashem pin! He wanted her to put it on when they went to 770. The little girl was embarrassed to wear it, and refused to put it on! Finally, after lots of begging, she agreed to put on the pin… but only on her skirt, not on her shirt.
Soon, the Rebbe came into 770! He saw the little girl, and smiled. He made a sign with his hand to show her that she shouldn’t be embarrassed to wear a Tzivos Hashem pin!
As soon as the Rebbe walked past, lots of Chassidim rushed over to make sure that the little girl’s Tatty would move the pin onto the top of her shirt.
Now, that little girl is a VERY proud shlucha, helping Yidden do more and more mitzvos and bring Moshiach closer!
Are YOU proud to be a soldier in Tzivos Hashem?
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In Mah Tovu and Adon Olam, we show how davening is a special time and place for our neshama to approach Hashem.
In davening, we are going to ask Hashem for many things. But what zechus do we deserve it with?
The next part of davening is the Akeidah, where we remind Hashem about the zechus of the Avos, Avraham and Yitzchak. The Mesiras Nefesh they had is a tremendous zechus for all of the Yidden!
The story of the Akeidah also helps us with another part of davening. When we daven, we are making ourselves more aidel, so we can feel kedusha more. We are working on making our neshamos stronger and overcoming the Yetzer Hara. With the koach of Mesiras Nefesh that we have inside of us, from the Avos, we will be able to win over our Yetzer Hara!
See the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, siman alef
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We are learning some of the halachos of washing our hands for bread. Today we will learn about shifshuf.
After carefully washing our hands with plenty of water, making sure it reached every part of our hands, we hold a little bit of water in the palm of the hand we just washed (our left hand) and go on to the next part of Netilas Yodayim. We hold our hands up to our heart, and make the bracha. Then we rub our hands together with the little bit of water that is left. This is called “shifshuf.”
Shifshuf is part of the mitzvah of Netilas Yodayim, to make our hands extra tahor.
Usually, we say a bracha BEFORE doing a mitzvah, but the Chachomim didn’t want us to make a bracha right before our hands are tahor. Instead, we say the bracha afterwards. But the best way to say the bracha is before doing shifshuf, so that the bracha is still at least before doing PART of the mitzvah. (If we forget, we can say the bracha even after drying our hands.)
Seder Netilas Yodayim L’seudah, se’if 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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This week is also called Shabbos Chazak!
Why?
Because this week, Parshas Vayechi, we finish a whole sefer of Chumash, Chumash Bereishis! In shul, when we finish leining the parsha, we all say, “Chazak, Chazak, Venis’chazek!” “Be strong, be strong, and you will be made strong!”
Learning a part of Torah, especially a whole Chumash, gives us strength and koach to go on, because of the lessons we learned from it.
The Torah isn’t just stories about things that happened a long time ago. The Torah is “nitzchis,” it is forever — the things we learn about in Torah are always happening in a Ruchnius’dike way!
When we learn Torah, we also need to listen to the Ruchnius message of what the Torah is telling us, to give us koach in our lives today.
Now that we are finishing Chumash Bereishis, we should take time to think about the koach we got from this sefer:
Throughout Chumash Bereishis, we see that Hashem is making promises — Hashem promises the Avos, starting from the Bris Bein Habesarim to Avraham Avinu, that the Yidden will get Eretz Yisroel. We see the promises and brachos given to the Shevatim, and the promise Yosef Hatzadik gives the Yidden, that Hashem will not forget them and will take them out of the Golus of Mitzrayim.
These promises were not just for then, they are promises to us today also! Now we are also in Golus, but Hashem’s promise did not change! Hashem promises that He will take us out of Golus and bring us back to Eretz Yisroel.
This is even more important to think about now, since the Rebbe tells us how close we are to the Geulah! Even though things might be hard, Hashem promises to remember us and take us out of Golus to the Geulah Sheleimah!
Based on farbrengen Parshas Vayechi 5747
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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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