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CHUMASH
Parshas Vayechi - Shlishi with Rashi
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In today’s Chumash we learn the brachos that Yaakov gives to Efrayim and Menasheh.
Yaakov is giving brachos to Yosef and his sons before he passes away. He switched his hands, putting the right hand on Efrayim (who was younger) during the first part of the bracha.
Yosef saw that Yaakov had put his right hand on Efrayim, the younger one! He didn’t think that was the right thing to do, so he lifted his father’s right hand to put it on Menasheh’s head, explaining that Menasheh was the oldest.
Yaakov said, “I know that Menasheh is the oldest! I even know that greatness will come from him, but Efrayim will be even GREATER!”
Rashi tells us that Yaakov was speaking with Ruach Hakodesh about Gideon and Yehoshua. Gideon, from Shevet Menasheh, would later save the Yidden in a war. But Yehoshua, from the family of Efrayim, would help the Yidden take over Eretz Yisroel, teach them Torah, and the whole world would know about him when the sun will stop in Givon! That’s why Yaakov bentched Efrayim with his right hand, because he would be greater.
Yaakov gave both of them brachos, saying that the Yidden will bentch their children to be like Efrayim and Menasheh, “Yesimcha Elokim K’Efrayim Veche’Menasheh.” He said Efrayim first, showing that in the order of the Shevatim, Efrayim comes before Menasheh. Efrayim would travel first in the Midbar, and would bring korbanos first when the Mishkan would start to be used.
Why do parents bentch children to be like Efrayim and Menashe? Because if you look through the Torah, you will see that from the beginning of Creation, all of the brothers that are mentioned have some kind of machlokes: Kayin and Hevel, Yitzchak and Yishmael, Yaakov and Eisav, Yosef and the Shevatim. But Efrayim and Menasheh were the first to love each other without any machlokes, even though Efrayim was put before Menasheh! And the greatest nachas for parents is to see their children living happily together.
Yaakov then told Yosef, “I am going to pass away, but Hashem will be with you and bring you back to Eretz Yisroel. Since you are going to work hard to make sure I am buried in Me’aras Hamachpeilah, I am giving you a special place to be buried, in Shechem, which I bought from Chamor the Emori. I am also giving you the bechora, to have a double portion of shevatim from your children, just like I took the bechora from Eisav with my chochmah and tefillos.”
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Today’s shiur Tehillim is kapitelach Ayin-Beis through Ayin-Vov.
In Kapitel Ayin-Gimmel (73), there is a posuk “Mi Li Bashamayim Ve’imcha Lo Chofatzti Ba’aretz.” “Do I need Shomayim? And I don’t want what’s with You in the world.”
The Tzemach Tzedek said that the Alter Rebbe used to say that this posuk means that he doesn’t want what’s WITH Hashem, even the most special Ruchnius things like Gan Eden or Olam Haba. He just wanted Hashem Himself!
How does a person connect with Hashem Himself? By doing a mitzvah in this Gashmiyus world! The Chachomim say that one hour of teshuvah and Maasim Tovim in this world is better than the whole Olam Haba! In Olam Haba, neshamos enjoy the light of Hashem, but through a mitzvah in this world, the neshama connects with the ESSENCE of Hashem.
In today’s Geulah U’Moshiach, we will see how we learn from the Alter Rebbe’s Ahavas Hashem that we shouldn’t want even the most special things from Golus, we should ask Hashem to bring Moshiach now!
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Tes
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Inside of each of us, there are two “kings” trying to get us to let them be the ruler over our body.
The Nefesh Elokis wants us to use all of our kochos to learning Torah and acting the way Hashem wants us to. The Nefesh Elokis wants us to enjoy it so much that even our Nefesh Habehamis will like it too!
The Nefesh Habehamis wants us to just think about what is good or yummy or fun for our body, and not to think about Hashem.
The truth is that Hashem only gave us the “other king,” the Nefesh Habehamis, for us to win over it. Since that’s the job of the Nefesh Habehamis, it really DOESN’T want us to do the wrong thing. The Nefesh Habehamis really WANTS to lose the war, because that’s why Hashem sent him!
It says in sefarim that if a person is not sure if they did the right thing, they should see how they feel afterwards. If they’re happy, it means it was the right thing. The reason is that the Yetzer Hara is happy when you don’t listen to it!
So if you do the right thing, everyone is happy — the Yetzer Tov (because you did the right thing) and the Yetzer Hara (because you won over him)! If someone chas veshalom doesn’t do the right thing, nobody is happy — not the Yetzer Tov, and not even the Yetzer Hara.
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The Shpoler Zeide was a talmid of the Maggid of Mezritch.
Once he visited the Alter Rebbe, and told him about when he saw the Baal Shem Tov. He was just three years old, and the Baal Shem Tov put his holy hand on the Shpoler Zeide’s heart. “Since then,” the Shpoler Zeide said, “I have always felt warm.”
We learn from this that whatever a tzadik does, and especially seeing and hearing him, leaves an impression on us forever.
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Many years ago, when you went shopping, you couldn’t just buy a bag of apples or a bag of flour. You might go to the miller, and ask him to give you flour that weighs a maneh. The miller would pull out his “one maneh” weight, and put it on one side of a scale. Then he would pour flour onto the other side, until the scale was balanced. That’s how he would know how much to sell you!
What do you think would happen if somebody cut just a little part off of the “one maneh” weight? Then the miller might SAY he was selling you a maneh of flour, but really it would be just a little bit less! The Torah says that doing that would be Geneivah — stealing.
Today’s three mitzvos are about how important it is to make sure that when we measure things to sell them, we have to measure EXACTLY.
1) (Mitzvas Asei #208) The first mitzvah is that we have to make sure to have scales and weights that “tell the truth” — they have to be exactly the right amounts.
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Kedoshim: מֹאזְנֵי צֶדֶק אַבְנֵי צֶדֶק אֵיפַת צֶדֶק וְהִין צֶדֶק יִהְיֶה לָכֶם
The halachos of this mitzvah are explained in Perek Hey of Mesechta Bava Basra.
2) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #271) It is asur to not tell the truth when we are measuring land to see who it belongs to, or weighing something to sell. We can’t just guess how much it measures or weighs.
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Kedoshim: לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ עָוֶל בַּמִּשְׁפָּט בַּמִּדָּה בַּמִּשְׁקָל וּבַמְּשׂוּרָה
3) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #272) We aren’t even allowed to even just HAVE a scale or weights that aren’t the right amounts, even if we aren’t using them at all, and even if we use them for a different reason, like as a toy!
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Ki Seitzei: לֹא יִהְיֶה לְךָ בְּכִיסְךָ אֶבֶן וָאָבֶן גְּדוֹלָה וּקְטַנָּה
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In today’s Rambam, we learn how to stay away from things that are stealing!
Perek Daled teaches us what happens if something is stolen while another person is watching it. It isn’t counted as being returned until the owner is sure that he got it back!
Perek Hey explains that we aren’t allowed to buy or sell something that is stolen. If somebody does, the owner can buy it back and make the thief pay him back that money.
Perek Vov teaches that we aren’t allowed to buy something that probably was stolen. For example, we aren’t allowed to buy something from a person who tells us to hide it, or from a person who usually doesn’t have that kind of thing, unless we are SURE it belongs to them!
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Today’s Rambam explains exactly how the mitzvah of Chalitzah is done.
If a woman’s husband passed away before they had any children, his brother has a mitzvah (yibum) to marry the woman so that they can have a baby to name after his brother. If the brother (the yavam) doesn’t want to marry her, she is not allowed to marry another person until they do the mitzvah of chalitzah.
The woman and her brother-in-law need to go to Beis Din. The yevama (the almanah) announces with certain words taken from the Torah that her husband’s brother doesn’t want her husband’s name to be remembered, because he doesn’t want to marry her.
The yavam needs to answer, “I don’t want to marry her.”
The yavam then puts on a special chalitzah shoe (which will fall apart once it is untied) on his right foot and stands. The yevama sits on the floor, unties the shoe, and throws it on the floor. Then she spits on the ground.
After this, the yevama says the words of the posuk, “Such shall be done to a man who doesn’t build his brother’s house! His family should be called the house of the one whose shoe was taken off (‘chalutz hanaal’)!”
Everyone who is there says, “Chalutz Hanaal! Chalutz Hanaal! Chalutz Hanaal! — the shoe was taken off.”
Then the almanah is allowed to get married to someone else.
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In today’s Chumash, Shlishi, we learn that Yaakov Avinu gives a bracha to Menasheh and Efrayim. He switches around his hands, because he sees with Ruach Hakodesh that the bigger bracha needs to go to Efrayim.
But didn’t Yosef Hatzadik also have Ruach Hakodesh? Didn’t he also know that Efrayim should get the first bracha? And if Efrayim should get the more important bracha, why didn’t Hashem make him the oldest?
The Rebbe explains that when we understand their names, we will understand why they had to be in this order:
Menasheh and Efrayim were both born in Mitzrayim, many years before Yaakov Avinu came down and set up a Yeshiva. They were the only Jewish family in the whole Mitzrayim!
Yosef named his first son Menasheh, which means “moving.” He wanted this son to remind him that he was moved out of his father’s home, away from his connection to Yiddishkeit. Menasheh would help him never forget his father’s house, and never forget that he is a Yid!
His second son was called Efrayim, meaning “growing.” Yosef gave this name to thank Hashem for growing and having hatzlacha even in Mitzrayim.
That is why Menasheh had to be born first, and why Yosef chose him to be on the right side. When someone is in Golus, the main thing is to always stay connected to Yiddishkeit! Without that, it will be impossible to do their shlichus in the world.
But for Yaakov Avinu, the main thing was Efrayim. Yaakov was giving a bracha, which is also kochos, to actually grow and have hatzlacha in the shlichus. When it comes to a bracha, knowing that we will be successful helps us stay strong and do our part!
This is also a lesson for all of us.
We are also in Golus. To be successful in our shlichus, the first part of our avodah needs to be Menasheh — to remember that we were moved away from our real home. We need to remember that we are in Golus, and do everything we can to stay connected to Hashem and to our Yiddishkeit, and want to leave the Golus as soon as possible.
We also need to remember Efrayim — that we are given a bracha, which is the kochos we need to have hatzlacha in our shlichus! We need to remember that we are given this bracha first, that we are promised that we will grow in Golus and fulfill the shlichus Hashem gave us here.
See Sicha Vayechi Tof-Shin-Lamed, Likutei Sichos chelek Tes-Vov, Vayechi sicha beis
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At the beginning of davening, the Chachomim gave us tefillos that help put us in the proper mood to daven.
When Hashem created the world, He gave every Gashmius’dike thing three ways to describe it (dimensions): Olam, Shana, and Nefesh.
1) Olam: Space (this means the place it fills up, the size and shape and color and feel.)
2) Shana: Time (Gashmius things don’t stay the same forever, they change based on the time they are in)
3) Nefesh: Chayus (the chayus of Hashem is what makes things the way they are!)
In Mah Tovu, we say pesukim to show how our davening is special in all of these three ways!
1) “Mah Tovu Oholecha Yaakov” — “The tents of the Yidden are so good!” We say that the Olam, the place we are davening in, is special!
2) “Va’ani Berov Chasdecha Avo Veisecha” — “I come to Your house with Your great chesed.” We say that the Nefesh who is davening, meaning ourselves, is special!
3) “Va’ani Sefilasi Lecha Hashem Eis Ratzon” — “My tefillah should come to Hashem at the right time.” We say that the Shana, the time of our davening is special!
When we stand before Hashem, we think about how our davening is special in every way — in Olam, Shana, and Nefesh.
The three pesukim are in the order we find them in Torah: The first posuk, “Mah Tovu,” is from Parshas Balak, the second posuk is from Tehillim, Kapitel Hey, and the third posuk is also from Tehillim, Kapitel Samach-Tes.
See My Prayer vol. 1
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When we wash our hands before eating bread, it is very important to make sure that our entire hand is covered with water.
So besides for using a lot of water, we hold our hands pointing upwards a little bit. This helps make sure that the water can reach our fingertips, and between all of our fingers.
Seder Netilas Yodayim of the Alter Rebbe, se’if alef
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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 Tehillim, “Mi Li Bashomayim” — The Alter Rebbe says that we only want Hashem.
We are saying the same thing when we ask for Moshiach now!
It may seem that there are many good things in Golus, in Gashmius and even in Ruchnius. A person could ask Hashem for riches, or health, or happiness. He could ask Hashem to be able to learn a lot of Torah, or to daven with lots of kavana. All of these things could happen in Golus.
But we learn from the Alter Rebbe that this isn’t what we should want! Only when Moshiach comes will the etzem of Hashem be revealed. We say that these good things are not enough — we want the etzem of Hashem to be revealed! We want Moshiach now!
See Parshas Tzav, Shabbos Hagadol 5745, Chassidim Ein Mishpacha #331
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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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