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CHUMASH
Parshas Vayechi - Sheini with Rashi
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In today’s Chumash, Yaakov begins to give the bracha to Efrayim and Menasheh.
Yaakov couldn’t see so well anymore because of his old age, so Yosef brought his sons in and brought them close to Yaakov. Yaakov hugged and kissed them! He said to Yosef, “I didn’t even think I would be able to see YOU, and Hashem even showed me now your children!”
After Yaakov kissed them, Yosef had his sons move away a little, and bowed to the ground before his father. Yosef then put Efrayim and Menasheh in the proper place to be bentched by Yaakov. He put Menasheh, who was older, near Yaakov’s right hand, and Efrayim near Yaakov’s left hand. This way, the older son would receive a bracha from Yaakov’s right hand.
But Yaakov purposely switched his hands, and put his right hand on Efrayim!
Yaakov bentched Yosef about the children. “May Hashem, Who Avraham and Yitzchak followed, and Who has always taken care of me and sent me a malach to take care of me, give these boys a bracha. They should be known with my name and the names of the rest of the Avos, and they should have many children like fish do, without being afraid of an Ayin Hara.”
The Rebbe tells us another reason why Yaakov bentched them that they should be like fish. Fish can’t be separated from the water, where they get their chayus. Yaakov was giving a bracha for Menashe and Efrayim that they should also be one with the source of their chayus, Hashem. By always being connected to Hashem’s Ratzon and avodah, they will always be a good keili to get brachos from Hashem. (Likutei Sichos chelek Chof-Hey p. 11)
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Today’s kapitelach are Samach-Tes, Ayin, and Ayin-Alef.
One of the pesukim in Kapitel Samech-Tes is “Va’ani Sefilosi Lecha Hashem Eis Ratzon.” We say this posuk every day in (can you guess?) Mah Tovu.
There is another place we say this posuk as well — before we take the Torah out on Shabbos at Mincha time. The posuk means that when we daven it’s a very special time. The reason why we say it by Mincha on Shabbos is because that’s ALSO a very special time, the most special time of the whole Shabbos!
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Tes
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Now we know where the nefashos are in our bodies, but how does it work if they are both in one body, and they both want different things?
The Alter Rebbe says that the body is like a city which two kings are fighting over. Each one wants to be in charge, so everyone will say that THEY are the king and everyone needs to listen to whatever they say!
The two kings are the two nefashos. The Nefesh Elokis wants to be the only one in charge, so that the whole body will listen to it and only do mitzvos and good things — and that even the Nefesh Habehamis should listen to it!
The Nefesh Habehamis wants the same thing! He wants to be the only one in charge of the body, so the body will only listen to it, and only do things that are comfortable and fun!
So they are always fighting.
Can you think of some things that your nefashos fight about?
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When we act the way Chassidus teaches, sometimes we don’t even need to work very hard to bring Yidden closer to Yiddishkeit!
If you put a lantern outside in the dark, people will gather around, because they like to be around light. If you are a “lantern” shining with Torah and Chassidus, people will want to come closer to you too! They will want to become closer to Yiddishkeit when they see how you act.
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Today we learn two mitzvos about stealing:
1) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #244) is that we are not allowed to steal!
We learn this from a posuk in Parshas Kedoshim, that says: לֹא תִּגְנֹבוּ
The mitzvah is explained in Perek Zayin of Mesechta Bava Kama.
2) (Mitzvas Asei #239) is that we need to follow the halachos about how to judge and punish a thief. Sometimes the thief needs to pay back double what he stole, or even four or five times what he stole! If a thief doesn’t have enough money to pay back what he stole, he is sold as a slave.
The halachos of this mitzvah are explained in Perek Zayin of Mesechta Bava Kama, Perek Ches of Mesechta Sanhedrin, Perek Gimmel of Bava Metziah, and a few places in Kesubos, Kiddushin, and Shevuos.
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In today’s Rambam, we start learning a new set of halachos, about Geneivah — stealing. There are going to be 9 perakim (so we will be learning this for the next 3 days) and they will teach us about not stealing (the first 6 perakim), cheating (the next 2 perakim), or kidnaping (the last perek). There are 7 mitzvos that Hilchos Geneivah will teach us about.
Perek Alef talks about what it means to steal. We are not allowed to steal ANYTHING, not even a tiny thing, and not from anyone — not from even a little kid! We aren’t allowed to take their things for a joke, or even if we are planning on giving them back later!
Perek Beis explains the halachos of when someone does or doesn’t need to pay the “knas” — double (like if he didn’t tell the truth that he stole) or 5 times as much (like if he stole an animal and killed it).
In Perek Gimmel we learn halachos for the Beis Din, about when a person does something that might make him not have to pay the “knas” — like if he did an even bigger aveira, and needs to be punished for that instead; or if he admitted that he stole, so he doesn’t need to pay back extra; or if he doesn’t have money to pay.
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Today we learn the halachos of when a witness is needed to decide if a woman needs to do yibum or chalitzah or not. For example, if a man says that he has no brothers, do we trust what he said?
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There is a story told about the Baal Shem Tov, that he used to give a lot of tzedakah — more than he could afford.
In Usha (one of the places where there was a big yeshiva), there was a takana made that you shouldn’t be mevazvez (spend freely) more than 1/5th of your wealth on tzedakah.
The Baal Shem Tov was asked, how can you give more than the amount the Chachomim told you to?
The Baal Shem Tov answered, “Mevazvez comes from the word ‘biza,’ the spoils of a war. With a person who has to fight with himself to give, he shouldn’t give more than a chomeish, 1/5th.
“But if someone enjoys giving, why is tzedakah different than any other pleasure, where a person can spend as much as he wants or needs?”
The Rebbe adds to this story, that this is even more true when we remember Hashem’s promise, that we can test Him with tzedakah. This will bring even more simcha and taanug into our giving, and we can give as much tzedakah as we want!
See Likutei Sichos chelek Alef, p. 169
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The Chachomim tell us that this long, long Golus came because of our aveiros, especially because of Sinas Chinam, hating another Jew for no reason.
While we fight the darkness of Golus by bringing light to the world, we also need to fight the Golus by taking away the reason for it! That way, the Golus will have no more reason to be there. We do this by strengthening our Ahavas Yisroel, loving every Jew just because he is a Jew!
In davening, we are going to ask Hashem to bring us the Geulah. We start off our davening by telling Hashem that the reason for the Golus is gone! We say Hareini, telling Hashem that we love every single Jew. This way, the reason for the Golus will go away, and Hashem will give us what we’re asking for — the Geulah for all of the Yidden!
See Igros Kodesh chodesh Menachem Av 5724
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Over the next few days, we will learn some of the halachos of how to wash our hands properly before Hamotzi:
One halacha is that we need to use A LOT of water for Netilas Yodayim, to make sure that it reaches every part of our hands. R’ Chisda said that he used a lot of water, and because of this he received a lot of bracha!
(There are also halachos about exactly how to hold our hands, to make sure the water can reach every part of our hands properly.)
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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 Chachomim tell us, “Gedolah Tzedakah Shemekareves Es HaGeulah.” “Great is tzedakah, which brings the Geulah closer.”
Why do the Chachomim say this only about the mitzvah of tzedakah, and not about other mitzvos? Don’t ALL mitzvos bring Moshiach?
The way to bring the Geulah is to take all of the pieces of kedusha that are hiding in Gashmius’dike things, and bring them to Hashem. We do this by using all of the Gashmius’dike things the way Hashem wants us to use them! When all of the Yidden take their part of Gashmius and use it for kedusha, that brings the Geulah!
Tzedakah does this better than any other mitzvah! With all other mitzvos, we only bring up the kedusha hiding in that specific body part, or that specific Gashmius thing we used for the mitzvah. For example, we use our hand to shake the lulav and esrog, or our nose to smell besamim on Motzei Shabbos.
But in order to earn the money to give tzedakah, we need to use SO many kochos, and SO many Gashmius’dike things — and ALL of them become elevated to kedusha when we take from our hard-earned money and give it to tzedakah! That’s why especially the mitzvah of tzedakah brings the Geulah faster, because it elevates more Gashmius to kedusha than any other mitzvah can!
See Tanya Perek Lamed-Zayin
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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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