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CHUMASH
Parshas Vayechi - Shishi with Rashi
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In today’s Chumash, the last shevet gets his bracha, and all of the shevatim are also included in everyone else’s brachos! Yaakov Avinu passes away and is buried in Me’aras Hamachpeilah.
Now Yaakov gives a bracha to the last shevet, Benyamin. His bracha is that he should be like a wolf, who grabs its food. One reason for this bracha is that the mizbeiach of the Beis Hamikdosh will be in Benyamin’s part of Eretz Yisroel. The mizbeiach will “eat” all of the korbanos, like a wolf grabs its food!
Even though it looks like Reuven, Shimon, and Levi didn’t get brachos, really they ALL got brachos. In fact, they all got the same brachos, but each shevet got one special bracha that they got a lot of.
Yaakov knew he was going to pass away. He asked his sons to bury him in Me’aras Hamachpeilah, with the other Avos and Leah Imeinu. Only the Shevatim and their children should help, not any Mitzriyim.
Yaakov told them to carry his Aron the same way the Yidden will camp around the Mishkan. Levi shouldn’t help, because his family will carry the Aron in the Mishkan, and Yosef shouldn’t either because it’s not right for the second to the king to do it. Menasheh and Efrayim will help carry it instead.
Then Yaakov lay down, and his neshama left his body. But the Torah doesn’t say that Yaakov passed away! Since Yaakov’s whole life was to raise his children to go in the way of Hashem, as long as his children are still going in the way of Hashem, his neshama is still alive in this world! It is doing its job through his children who are alive in this world, and living in the way that he taught!
Yosef saw that his father’s holy Guf had finished its job in the world, and he cried. He went to Paraoh and told him that he made a shvuah to bury Yaakov in Eretz Yisroel. Paraoh really wanted to keep Yaakov’s body in Mitzrayim for an Avodah Zarah, but he knew that he couldn’t tell Yosef to break his promise. If he did, Yosef might break a promise that HE made to Paraoh, and tell everyone that Paraoh didn’t know Lashon Kodesh!
Many people joined Yaakov’s levayah. When the kings of Canaan heard that the Shevatim were coming, they came out to make a war. But when they came, they saw Yosef’s crown on top of Yaakov’s Aron. Instead of fighting, they put their crowns there too, out of respect.
When the Shevatim got to Chevron, they buried Yaakov in Me’aras Hamachpeila, and then they all went back to Mitzrayim.
The shevatim were worried that Yosef wouldn’t be as nice to them anymore after Yaakov passed away. They weren’t sure he forgave them yet for selling him. They told Yosef that Yaakov asked him to forgive them. Even though it wasn’t really true, they said it so there would be shalom in the family.
Yosef answered that Hashem WANTED his brothers to sell him, so he could take care of them! They shouldn’t be worried, Hashem doesn’t want any of them to be hurt.
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Today’s shiur Tehillim is Kapitelach Pey-Gimmel to Pey-Zayin.
In Kapitel Pey-Zayin, there is a posuk that says, “U’LeTzion Yei’amar, Ish Ve’Ish Yulad Ba, Vehu Yechoneneha Elyon.” This means, “About Yerushalayim they (the goyim) will say: This person and this person were born there, and Hashem will set up Yerushalayim so it will last forever.”
The Gemara tells us that this posuk is talking about the times of Moshiach!
When Moshiach comes, the Navi says that the goyim will bring a present to Hashem. Their present will be that they will help find all of the Yidden scattered around the world, so that they can go back to Yerushalayim!
They will say, “Ish Ve’Ish Yulad Ba!” This person and this person were born in Yerushalayim! That’s why they need to go back there.
The Gemara explains that even though not all Yidden were born in Yerushalayim, still all Yidden are called from Yerushalayim.
There are some Yidden that were actually born in Yerushalayim, and most other Yidden hoped to come back to Yerushalayim with Moshiach! Because they wanted to be in Yerushalayim, they are counted as if they were born there too!
That’s why the goyim will say Ish V’Ish, this person AND this person. They are talking about both kinds of Yidden, the ones that were born there and the ones who hope to live there, since we ALL belong in Yerushalayim.
See Gemara Kesubos 75a and Rashi there
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Yud
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In this perek we are learning about the two levels of a tzadik, a Tzadik Gamur (complete tzadik) and a Tzadik She’aino Gamur (not complete tzadik).
Today the Alter Rebbe tells us more about the Tzadik Gamur. Tzadikim Gemurim have a special name in the Gemara: Bnei Aliyah (people on a high level). Aliyah also means to bring up, and they have this name for two reasons:
1) They bring up what is not good and make it into kedusha. They turned their Yetzer Hara into a Yetzer Tov, so now they have no Yetzer Hara at all.
2) They bring up their avodah to the highest level possible. The mitzvos they do are not for themselves — they are for Hashem’s sake! They don’t do mitzvos only to connect their own neshamos to Hashem and to feel close to Hashem, they do them to make a Dira Betachtonim, to make the world the way Hashem wants it to be!
They are able to do this because they first changed their Yetzer Hara into a Yetzer Tov.
This sounds like a beautiful avodah, but only for a Tzadik Gamur, like a Rebbe! What does it have to do with us?
There is an expression from the Rebbeim that says, “Omek Chossid Rebbe” — the deepest part of a chossid is the Rebbe. Every chossid is a shliach of the Rebbe, and “Shlucho Shel Adam Kamoso” — a person’s shliach is like himself! So we also need to try to find how we can do this avodah, at least in a small way. That’s the shlichus that the Rebbe gives to each of us, to bring Moshiach! Every mitzvah we do shouldn’t be just for what we will get from it, although that it is true that we get things from our mitzvos, but it should be done so that we can make a Dira Betachtonim for Hashem’s sake, to take the Shechinah and all of the Yidden out of Golus!
The Alter Rebbe says that based on the Gemara, this avodah of a Tzadik Gamur is called a chossid! (The Gemara says, “Aizehu Chossid? Hamis’chased Im Kono.” Who is a chossid? Someone who does chesed with His Creator — he does his mitzvos not for himself, but to do a chesed for Hashem and make a Dira Betachtonim.)
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In the year the Hayom Yom was written, this was Nittel Nacht (the night of a non-Jewish holiday which is a source of kelipah).
The Rebbe tells us that we don’t learn Torah on Nittel Nacht, because there is a lot of kelipah in the world and we don’t want to give it any more chayus.
Some bochurim loved to learn Torah so much that they couldn’t manage to stop during Nittel Nacht. The Rebbe Rashab said that he was not happy with these bochurim.
Our love for learning Torah shouldn’t just be because we love learning, but because it is what HASHEM wants from us. So on a night where Hashem doesn’t want us to learn, we should be happy NOT to learn.
Here is a story about that idea:
Once there were two tzadikim, the brothers Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk and Rabbi Zushe of Anipoli, who were thrown into jail. They were put into a big room with many other prisoners. In a corner there was a barrel to use as a bathroom. It was the afternoon, and one of the brothers said that it was time to daven Mincha.
“But you can’t daven here,” said his brother. “That smelly barrel is in the corner, and the Shulchan Aruch teaches us that we can’t daven in a room that smells bad!”
The other tzadik was very sad. “It’s bad enough that we were thrown in jail, and now we can’t even daven Mincha!”
“Don’t be sad,” his brother told him. “The same Hashem Who tells us to daven Mincha every day also tells us NOT to daven if we are stuck in such a place. So today we are serving Hashem by NOT davening!”
This made both of the tzadikim so happy that they jumped up and started singing and dancing around the smelly barrel! They were celebrating that they could serve Hashem in jail!
When the jail guards heard the singing, they ran into the room to see what was happening. “It’s those Jews over there,” the other prisoners told the guards. “They were pointing at the barrel, and now they are dancing around it!”
The guards were very angry. “They like the barrel? That’s it, we’re taking it away!”
The guards took away the barrel, and both tzadikim were STILL able to serve Hashem — this time by davening Mincha!
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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #247) is that we can’t keep money that we owe someone else. This is called Oshek. Whether we owe them money that we borrowed, or we owe them because they did work for us and we need to pay them, if we keep that money it is like stealing!
So now we have three kinds of stealing: We have Geneivah (stealing something in a hidden way), Gezeilah (robbing something by force), and Oshek (holding someone else’s money that we owe them and not giving it to them — either telling them that we won’t pay, or by giving excuses, or tricking them).
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Kedoshim, לֹא תַעֲשֹׁק אֶת רֵעֲךָ, and a similar posuk in Parshas Ki Seitzei, לֹא תַעֲשֹׁק שָׂכִיר. The punishment for Oshek is the same as the punishment for Gezeilah, which we see from a posuk from Parshas Vayikra that puts them both together: וְכִחֵשׁ בַּעֲמִיתוֹ בְּפִקָּדוֹן אוֹ בִתְשׂוּמֶת יָד אוֹ בְגָזֵל אוֹ עָשַׁק אֶת עֲמִיתוֹ
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RAMBAM
Hilchos Gezeilah VaAveidah
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more about robbery.
Perek Daled teaches us about the knas (fine) that the Chachomim made against a robber. The person that was robbed is allowed to make a promise in Beis Din, and the robber will have to pay whatever amount he says the robber took.
Perek Hey explains that we are not allowed to use things that were stolen by a robber.
Perek Vov has halachos about when things can be counted as robbery even if they don’t look like robbery — like taking someone’s furniture that fell into the river and was washed away, or like gambling.
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Today we learn the halachos of complicated situations for Yibum and Chalitzah.
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We learn in this week’s parsha, Parshas Vayechi, that the best years of Yaakov’s life were in Mitzrayim. How could Mitzrayim be better than in Eretz Yisroel? The Rebbe explains that this was because Yehuda set up a yeshiva there to learn Torah! That way, even in Mitzrayim, even in Golus, his life was able to be very good.
We see from here that only through always learning Torah can we be living in Golus properly!
We will learn a letter from the Rebbe about how important it is to always be connected to Torah:
The Yetzer Hara came up with a plan called “vacation.” Unfortunately, even very frum Yidden accept it.
They think that whatever is true during the rest of the year is different during “vacation.”
This is the opposite of what the Torah tells us!
The posuk says that the Torah is our life and the length of our days. We can’t take a break from living! The Chachomim compare a Yid to a fish. Just like fish can’t leave the water, a Yid can’t survive without Torah and mitzvos.
Chas veshalom to think that during “vacation” or “break time” we don’t need to learn any more, or we need to learn less!
A Yid always needs to be connected to his source of life — the Torah.
See Shulchan Menachem vol. 5 p. 59, Igros Kodesh vol. 13 p. 302
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At the beginning of davening, as a way to prepare ourselves for davening properly, we read the story of the Akeida as it is written in Torah. On a day when we say Tachanun, we add a paragraph before and after the Akeida, asking Hashem to be good to us. We ask Hashem, just as Avraham Avinu went against his nature to do what Hashem wanted, Hashem should go against any nature of the world and do good for us!
The Gemara says that Hashem Himself says these words, saying that He should overlook any strictness against Yidden, and only do kindness for them. One of the things we ask Hashem in the paragraph after the Akeidah is that Hashem should do the greatest kindness, to bring us back to our land with Moshiach Tzidkeinu very soon!
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Before we eat any amount of bread, even just a little bit, we need to do Netilas Yodayim, wash our hands.
But we only make the bracha Al Netilas Yodayim if we plan to eat at least a kebeitzah of bread. A kebeitzah means the size of an egg, which the Chachomim teach is the size of two olives — kezayis. The way we measure nowadays, this is about two ounces, which is usually the size of one or two slices of bread.
Seder Netilas Yodayim L’seudah, se’if Yud-Ches
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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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The Rebbe said this in a sicha a week and a half after the Nitzachon of Hey Teves:
Usually, the Torah finishes things with a good or happy inyan. But at the end of this week’s parsha, which is the end of the whole Chumash Bereishis, the Torah ends off with something very sad! Here, the last thing the Torah says is that Yosef lived for 110 years, and then they put Yosef in an Aron in Mitzrayim.
Of course that is what happened, but is that the best way to finish the whole Chumash Bereishis?
The Rebbe tells us that really it IS the most important thing to tell us at the end of this Chumash!
The whole Chumash Bereishis tells us about the things that happened to our Avos. Not only do we learn lessons from the things our Avos did, but we get kochos from them for when similar things happen to us! We need to use these kochos when we are in Golus, like the Golus we learn about in Chumash Shemos.
That’s why the last thing we learn, before Golus Mitzrayim starts in the next Chumash, is that Yosef’s Aron stayed with the Yidden in Mitzrayim. The Torah is telling us that when we are in Golus, having the “Aron of Yosef” with us is a tremendous help and koach to get through the Golus!
Besides for all of the kochos we have from the rest of Chumash Bereishis, the things we learn from Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, the last and very important thing which we have is that we have “Yosef” with us.
In our last Golus too, we see that the Ohel of all of the Rebbeim stayed with us! Many Tzadikim were buried in Eretz Yisroel, but the Rebbeim stayed with their Chassidim, where they were. We know that whenever we need a bracha (in Gashmius or in Ruchnius), we always have a place to turn to get the koach we need. We can go to “the Aron of Yosef,” the Ohel of the Rebbe which is with us in Golus, and that will give us encouragement to get through the Golus and bring Moshiach now!
See Farbrengen 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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