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CHUMASH
Parshas Bo - Sheini with Rashi
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In today’s Chumash, Hashem sends the Arbeh, the locusts, who eat up everything in Mitzrayim. Paraoh says he will let the Yidden go — but then changes his mind when the locusts are gone. Hashem has to send the next makah, Choshech. The whole Mitzrayim is darker than night — but the Yidden can see.
8: Makas Arbeh (locusts), continued
Moshe had warned Paraoh, but Paraoh didn’t want to let all the Yidden go.
So Hashem told Moshe to pick up his arm, and the locusts would come. Hashem made a wind blow all day and night, and the next morning, millions of locusts came and ate all of the grass, the trees, and all of the plants.
Paraoh quickly called Moshe and Aharon and said “I’m sorry! I did the wrong thing! Please forgive me and get rid of these locusts!”
Moshe davened to Hashem and a wind blew all the locusts into the water.
But again Paraoh got stubborn and wouldn’t let the Yidden go.
9: Makas Choshech (darkness)
Moshe warned Paraoh about the next makah, darkness, but Paraoh didn’t listen. When Moshe picked up his arm like Hashem said, Mitzrayim got very dark. It was a kind of dark that it didn’t help to light a candle or a fire!
During this time, Hashem made that all of the Yidden who didn’t want the Geulah would pass away. Hashem didn’t want the Mitzriyim to see that there were Yidden dying, so He did it during the makah of Choshech. (This Geulah will be different — when Moshiach comes, EVERY Yid will come out!)
Then, the darkness got very thick — so dark you could FEEL it! The Mitzriyim couldn’t even move. But for the Yidden, it was light!
The Yidden knew that they were supposed to leave Mitzrayim with a lot of riches. So now, when the Mitzriyim couldn’t stop them, they looked around in the Mitzriyim’s houses to see where they kept all of their gold and jewelry — but they didn’t take any.
The last Golus and Geulah are the same in many ways as the first Geulah from Mitzrayim. The Rebbe would say that just like at the end of the Golus in Mitzrayim, when it was dark around but it was light for the Yidden, the same is true today! Even though the Yidden were still in Golus, and the darkness of the Golus was very strong, there was “Ohr Bemoshvosam,” it was light for the Yidden. The same can be for us: Even though the darkness of the Golus is so great, by us staying strong in the path of Torah and Yiddishkeit, we can also have “Ohr Bemoshvosam,” even in Golus we can live with the light of Torah!
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Today’s Tehillim is kapitelach Chof-Tes through Lamed-Daled.
In the last perek of today’s Tehillim, Dovid Hamelech tells us “Sur Me’Ra, Va’asei Tov, Bakeish Shalom Verodfeihu” — “turn away from bad, and do good, and work hard to make shalom.”
The Baal Shem Tov explains that in every gashmius’dike thing in this world, there’s a part that’s good and a part which is bad. The Gashmius on its own (without being used for a holy purpose) is bad. The good is the chayus of Hashem which gives life to this gashmius’dike thing.
The posuk is telling us about the attitude a person should have to Gashmius. A person who is using Gashmius needs to be a “Sur Me’Ra” — someone who turns away from bad. He shouldn’t want the pleasure that he gets from the gashmius. Instead he should be “Asei Tov” — choose to want to be helped by the chayus of Hashem that is inside.
Then, when his attitude is correct, because he isn’t using the gashmius for selfish reasons, he should try to make shalom with the chayus of Hashem and the gashmius thing. How does he do that? By using the gashmius for the reasons Hashem wants it to be used — for doing mitzvos and for having koach to be able to serve Hashem!
Hayom Yom Hey Menachem Av, Sefer Hamaamarim of the Frierdiker Rebbe, Yiddish, page 75
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Yud-Zayin
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Yesterday, we learned that the avodah of a beinoni is to think about Hashem in order to make a hachlata in his heart that he will behave the way Hashem wants. That’s what the posuk means, “Ki Karov Eilecha Hadavar Me’od” — it’s possible for every Yid to serve Hashem and keep Torah and mitzvos with a feeling in the heart!
But, the Alter Rebbe says, a Rasha who did a lot of aveiros and let his Yetzer Hara be in control of him too much, can get a punishment — that he won’t be able to act like a beinoni! His mind won’t be able to have enough koach to get him to want to serve Hashem! He won’t be able to use the natural koach of Moach Shalit Al Halev to be in control of his behavior.
But that doesn’t mean that he will never be able to serve Hashem, chas veshalom! It just means that right now, he can’t serve Hashem so well. But when he does Teshuvah, and feels bad about what he did, and decides to act differently, Hashem will give him back this important koach!
In this week’s parsha, we see an example of this from Paraoh!
Paraoh had a lot of chutzpah to Hashem! He was supposed to let the Yidden out of Mitzrayim, but he kept on saying no.
Because of this chutzpah, Hashem didn’t make it easier for him to do the right thing. But in the end, Paraoh got Makos, which broke his chutzpah, and that helped him do Teshuvah. Not only did he send the Yidden out, but he was even able to teach about Hashem, when he later became a king in Ninveh.
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In today’s Hayom Yom, we learn how important it is to use our koach of speaking to always say words of Torah!
In a maamar that starts with the words “Bidvar Hashem Shomayim Naasu,” the Frierdiker Rebbe explains what it means that Hashem created the world with dibur. Then, the Frierdiker Rebbe says that the reason why Hashem created the world with dibur is so a Yid should use his dibur to strengthen the world that Hashem created with dibur!
In the second half of that maamar, the Frierdiker Rebbe mentions what happens to the neshama after it finishes its job in this world. If a person wasted his time and talked a lot of narishkeit, the neshama needs a special cleaning called Chibut Hakever and Kaf Hakela. Today’s Hayom Yom is the last few lines of that maamar:
A person needs to say many words of Torah, (like to say Tehillim or review Mishnayos) whenever and wherever he can! This way it will strengthen the world (because this is why Hashem created it), it will save him from needing Chibut Hakever and Kaf Hakela, and his neshama will be able to appreciate Elokus.
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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #251) is the same one as yesterday’s! This mitzvah is that we are not allowed to hurt other people with our words (Ona’as Devarim). We aren’t allowed to say mean things, or things that will make someone embarrassed or feel bad.
For example, we aren’t allowed to remind a Baal Teshuvah about the aveiros he did, or tell someone who is sick that it must be a punishment for something he did. We also can’t ask questions to a storekeeper to make him think that we are going to buy something if we aren’t really planning on buying it.
We learn this from a posuk in Parshas Behar: וְלֹא תוֹנוּ אִישׁ אֶת עֲמִיתוֹ וְיָרֵאתָ מֵאֱלֹקֶיךָ
The details of this mitzvah are explained in Perek Daled of Bava Metziah.
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more about how to do business the Torah way!
Perek Tes-Zayin teaches us about when we can return something and get our money back! One halacha is that if we buy a cow and the person who sold it didn’t tell us that it had no teeth, so it dies from not eating anything, we can give back the dead cow and get all of our money back.
Perek Yud-Zayin explains when the Torah says a sale wasn’t fair, and we can give back what we bought and get our money back. When we sell something, we need to make sure to tell the truth about what it is and how good it is!
In Perek Yud-Ches the Rambam teaches us about not tricking people when we sell something. We can’t paint an old car to make it look new, or put fancy apples on the top of a bag of rotten ones so someone will buy it. But we ARE allowed to give out balloons or candies to kids who come to our store so they will want to come back!
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This perek teaches us more halachos about Taharas Hamishpacha.
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One of the minhagim of Yud Shevat is to learn through the maamar of the Frierdiker Rebbe that he gave to Chassidim to learn on the day of Yud Shevat in the year of his histalkus, in Tof-Shin-Yud (1950). We learn part of the maamar after Maariv, after Shacharis, and after Mincha. This way, we finish the whole maamar on Yud Shevat.
This maamar starts with the words “Bosi Legani,” which is what Hashem said at the time of Matan Torah, “I came to My garden.”
In one of the sichos on Yud Shevat, the Rebbe explained why the posuk compares the world to a garden: Sometimes the world looks like a scary place. But a Yid needs to remember that it’s really a special place, it’s Hashem’s world that Hashem watches every second! It’s just that the Yetzer Hara tries to get us to think it’s scary, so we won’t be brave to act the way Hashem wants us to.
But if we remember that all of the hard things we see are from Hashem, we try hard to find the good things in the world, and work to make the world a place for Hashem’s Shechinah to feel comfortable — we will for sure bring Moshiach, when everyone will be able to see that the world is Hashem’s garden!
The Rebbe also had a minhag to explain one se’if (section) of this series of maamarim every year. There are 20 se’ifim in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s hemshech Bosi Legani, so from Tof-Shin-Yud to Tof-Shin-Lamed, the Rebbe explained the entire series of maamarim. The Rebbe did the same thing again over the next 20 years, and began the third cycle. Chassidim have continued the cycle the way the Rebbe started it. We learn the maamarim that the Rebbe said or edited for the se’if of each year.
This year we are learning the 14th se’if, for the 4th time since Yud Shevat (5724, 5744, 5764, 5784). We learn the Rebbe’s maamar of Tof-Shin-Chof-Daled and Tof-Shin-Mem-Daled.
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Another reason why we say Ana B’koach is to hint to another part of the Avodah in the Beis Hamikdash that we didn’t say yet!
We said parts of the Torah about the Terumas Hadeshen, the Korban Tomid, and the Ketores. We mentioned most of the rest of the steps of the Avodah in the paragraph of Abayei.
But there was something else that was done in the Beis Hamikdash every day that we didn’t say anything about here! In the Beis Hamikdash, they said Birchas Kohanim every day. (We did say the words of Birchas Kohanim in brachos, we didn’t say that it is part of the Avodah in the Beis Hamikdash.)
When we say Ana B’koach, we are hinting to Birchas Kohanim!
Ana B’Koach has hinted inside of it Hashem’s holy name. In the Beis Hamikdash, when they said Birchas Kohanim, they said the name of Hashem, the holy Sheim Hameforash! Ana B’Koach hints to that.
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We are learning the halachos of borer on Shabbos, separating something from a mixture, which is one of the Lamed-Tes Melachos.
For something to be considered borer, we need to be choosing from things that are mixed together, AND there needs to be more than one kind in the mixture.
If it is not considered a mixture, or it is all one kind, then it is not borer.
Let’s first see some examples of what is NOT a mixture.
If there is a serving platter with slices of meat, stacks of potatoes, and piles of carrots, those things are next to each other, but they aren’t mixed. We don’t have to worry about borer when we choose what we want.
Cups and bottles that are sitting on the table are also not mixed. Even if some are full and some are empty, we can take the empty ones off and throw them away. We don’t have to worry that it might be an isur of borer, since they are not a mixture.
See Shabbos Kehalacha perek Yud-Beis
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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 Navi says, “Kimei Tzeis’cah Me’Eretz Mitzrayim Arenu Niflaos.” In the time of the Geulah, Hashem will show us nisim like when we came out of Mitzrayim.
From here we learn that the Geulah from Mitzrayim is an example for the Geulah of Moshiach!
Here is one way that they are the same:
It says about Yetziyas Mitzrayim that it came in the zechus of the women — Bizchus Noshim Tzidkonios Nigalu Avoseinu. Moshiach will also come in the zechus of the Noshim Tzidkonios (righteous women) of our times!
That is why the Frierdiker Rebbe and the Rebbe were very careful to make sure that women have a very good Chinuch. Especially compared to the Rebbeim in other generations, they gave so much of their time and kochos for this! There were special letters, sichos and horaos just for the women, to help make sure that the Noshim of our times will be Noshim Tzidkonios, who will bring Moshiach in their zechus.
See Sefer Hasichos Nun-Beis p. 300
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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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