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CHUMASH
Parshas Bo - Revi'i with Rashi
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Moshe warns Paraoh about Makas Bechoros. Hashem gives the Yidden the mitzvah of Korban Pesach.
Moshe and Aharaon were still standing near Paraoh. Moshe told Paraoh that Hashem was going to do the next makah Himself — not through a malach! At about midnight, Hashem would make all of the oldest boys, and even the oldest animals, die. (Moshe told Paraoh that it would happen “at about midnight” so that Paraoh couldn’t say that Moshe was lying if his stargazers didn’t tell him the right time!) There would be loud crying all over Mitzrayim, so loud that it would scare all of the dogs! But no dogs would bark in a scary way at the Yidden, which will show that the Yidden are different.
“Your officers will come and tell me that all of the Yidden should leave Mitzrayim — and we will go.” (Moshe meant also Paraoh himself, but he said “officers” out of respect for Paraoh as a king.)
Then Moshe left Paraoh’s palace, showing that he was upset that Paraoh had so much chutzpah to say (like we learned in yesterday’s Chumash) that Moshe, the messenger of Hashem, should never come back again!
Korban Pesach
The Yidden need to DESERVE Yetziyas Mitzrayim, which will happen very soon! So Hashem gave the Yidden two mitzvos to do: The Korban Pesach and the Bris Milah.
On Rosh Chodesh Nisan, Hashem showed Moshe and Aharon the new moon. Hashem told them that this would be the first month of the Jewish year.
They should tell the Yidden today that on the 10th day of this month, each family from the Yidden needs to choose a young lamb or goat for a Korban. They should make sure the animal is big enough so everyone can have a kezayis but small enough that there won’t be any leftovers.
Hashem tells Moshe Rabbeinu the details of this mitzvah, for example if there are any leftovers, they will need to burn them. They can make groups to share one korban if a family is too small to eat the whole thing themselves. The animal shouldn’t have anything wrong with it — no mum, nothing missing or broken.
On the 14th day of Nissan, in the afternoon, the Yidden should shecht their animals, and put some of the blood on the top of the doorpost and on the sides around the doors of their houses. They should cook the animal over a fire, and eat the meat with matzah and maror. They should be wearing their shoes and all ready to go!
Hashem will kill all of the firstborns, but He will skip over the houses with blood, and not kill any of the Yidden in these houses.
The day the Yidden will come out of Mitzrayim, the 15th of Nissan, will become Pesach, and the Yidden will keep it as a Yom Tov forever. For seven days they will eat matzah. They may not eat chometz or even have any chometz in their houses.
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Today’s Tehillim is kapitelach Lamed-Tes through Mem-Gimmel.
According to some meforshim, Kapitel Mem-Alef, in today’s Tehillim, speaks about the mitzvah of Bikur Cholim.
The second posuk says, “Ashrei Maskil El Dal,” fortunate is the person who thinks about someone who is sick, and comes to visit him. The posuk tells us the words he should use to make the person feel better — “Beyom Ra’ah Yemalteihu Hashem,” he should tell the sick person that even if he is having a Yom Raah, a hard day, Hashem will help him and bring him a Refuah Sheleimah!
The kapitel tells us the special reward that Hashem gives the person who does Bikur Cholim like this, and that Hashem will help him when he needs help!
See Rashi and Radak on this kapitel
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Yud-Ches
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We are now starting to learn a new inyan in Tanya, which we will learn from Perek Yud-Ches through Chof-Hey.
Today’s Tanya is an introduction to what we will be learning for the next eight perakim:
Until now, the Alter Rebbe told us what the avodah of a beinoni is, and that being a beinoni is an avodah for every Yid. We learned that the main job of a beinoni is to be constantly in control of his behavior, and that the way to do this is through hisbonenus — thinking deeply about our connection to Hashem and realizing that learning Torah and doing mitzvos is the right thing for a Yid.
We also said that a special time for hisbonenus is during tefillah, and if it’s done right, the Yetzer Hara will fall asleep, and there will be no distractions to the Yetzer Tov during davening — the way it is for a tzadik!
The problem is that not everybody can have hisbonenus. Not everybody knows enough about the inyanim that bring us to have Ahava and Yirah, and not everybody is able to concentrate properly to think about these things.
The Alter Rebbe now is going to explain what we can do to make the right decisions and be successful in our shlichus even for someone who can’t have hisbonenus. So now, for the next 8 perakim, the Alter Rebbe will teach about this. Once we understand this properly, we will not have to have hisbonenus — we will just have to REMIND ourselves of something that is already there, and we will have the koach to make the right decision no matter what!
What is this?
The Alter Rebbe says (as quoted in Hayom Yom): “A Yid Nisht Er Vil Un Nisht Er Ken Zain Opgerisen Fun Getlichkeit” — a Yid NATURALLY doesn’t want to do something against Hashem, and CAN’T do something if he realizes that what he is doing is against what Hashem wants.
We will see that the only thing that CAN get a person to do an aveira is a Ruach Shtus, the foolish thoughts of the Yetzer Hara that convince us that what we are doing does not separate us from Hashem and from our connection to Yiddishkeit. As soon as we realize that this is the plot of the Yetzer Hara, and we know that everything we do IS important to our relationship with Hashem and being a Yid, then we won’t be able to do any aveira! We don’t even need to have hisbonenus for this, we just need to remind ourselves of what is true!
We will first need to learn more about what the nature of a Yid is, and what the Ruach Shtus of the Yetzer Hara is, along with some other inyanim to help us use this koach to win over the Yetzer Hara EVERY TIME.
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When the Alter Rebbe was 9, he learned certain parts of math and science that help us understand how the sun and moon work. When he was ten, he made a Yiddishe calendar for 15 years!
When the Alter Rebbe was just 12, he gave a shiur on the Rambam’s halachos of Kiddush Hachodesh, which explain when we see the new moon for Rosh Chodesh. These halachos are very complicated, and it made the Talmidei Chachomim in shul feel very embarrassed next to this young boy!
The Torah teaches us how the world should be according to Torah. Sometimes you first need to understand how the world works to understand what the Torah wants! One of the examples is that you need to know some math and science to understand the way the Yiddishe calendar works. That’s why the Alter Rebbe learned these things.
The Alter Rebbe, who was a posek in Niglah and Nistar (wrote the Shulchan Aruch and Tanya) knew everything that you need to know in order to understand halacha.
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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #253) is the same as yesterday’s: That we’re not allowed to cheat a Ger, to sell him something for more money than it is really worth, or buy something from him for too little. (Of course, we can’t cheat ANYONE! But if someone chas veshalom cheats a Ger, they did TWO aveiros, and need to do teshuvah for each one.)
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Mishpatim: וְגֵר לֹא תוֹנֶה
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more halachos of how a person can make something his in the Torah way. We see from these halachos how important it is to stay away from cheating by being very clear about exactly what we are selling.
In Perek Chof-Beis, we learn about selling something that isn’t there yet, like selling “whatever will grow on this tree.” A person isn’t allowed to do that, because it didn’t grow yet! But the Rambam says that if someone says that “whatever grows in this field” belongs to tzedakah, he needs to keep his promise!
Perek Chof-Gimmel teaches us more about this. We learn that it is different if a person sells someone the chance to grow things in their field, it IS fine to sell it. Because he is letting him use the field, which IS there!
In Perek Chof-Daled, the Rambam tells us that if we sell someone trees, we need to also sell him enough room in the field so he can take care of it. We also learn more halachos about what to do when it isn’t so clear what a person is selling.
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This perek teaches us more halachos about Taharas Hamishpacha.
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Before each Hayom Yom, the Rebbe writes the shiurim of the day, which Chumash, Tehillim and Tanya to learn. In most years we don’t actually learn those same shiurim, because it is on a different day of the week, a different parsha, or it is a Shana Peshuta where the Tanya is split up differently.
This year, the shiurim written in the Hayom Yom are the exact same ones that we are learning each day! Many times, as we can clearly see, there is a connection between the shiurim of the day and what the Rebbe chose for that day’s Hayom Yom.
In today’s Hayom Yom, we learned that the Alter Rebbe learned certain parts of math and science to understand the halachos of Kiddush Hachodesh. This is connected to the first mitzvah the Yidden got, which we learn about in today’s Chumash: The mitzvah of Kiddush Hachodesh, “Hachodesh Hazeh Lochem.”
Here’s a story about the Rebbe that shows how understanding how Hashem’s world works helps us understand the halacha properly:
When the Rebbe first came to America, there was a whole discussion about if you’re allowed to use a microphone in shul on Shabbos, so that everyone can hear the chazzan and Baal Korei. Nowadays, of course we all know you can’t do that! But in those days, people weren’t sure, and even some frum shuls wanted to do it. In fact, some Rabbonim even said it’s okay and that it is not a melacha on Shabbos.
The Rebbe said then, “There are some Rabbonim who know the halacha but don’t know how a microphone works. There are some Rabbonim who know how a microphone works and don’t know the halacha... But someone who understands both the halacha and the way the microphone works, will know that it is most definitely asur to use it in a shul on Shabbos!”
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The last maamar that the Frierdiker Rebbe gave out to learn before his histalkus on Yud Shevat was the maamar Bosi Legani, which has twenty se’ifim.
Every year on Yud Shevat, the Rebbe would say a maamar based on one se’if of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s maamar. Since then, every year we continue this minhag, learning the Rebbe’s explanations on one se’if, in order.
This year, we learn the Rebbe’s maamorim on the fourteenth se’if, which were said in Tof-Shin-Chof-Daled and Tof-Shin-Mem-Daled.
One of the things we learn about in this year’s maamar of Tof-Shin-Chof-Daled is about how Hashem is everywhere.
We all know that Hashem is everywhere! Hashem is in every direction and in every part of the world.
Hashem is not only in every nice place in the world, Hashem is even in places that seem dark, or scary, or disgusting. Hashem is inside everyone and everything, even such low things like kelipah!
But kelipah is not the LOWEST thing. Kelipah hides Hashem, but it is just doing its job! There is something lower than that — a Yid who does an aveira chas veshalom. A Yid who does what Hashem doesn’t want him to do is NOT doing his job. He is even lower than kelipah!
Still, Hashem is right there with him too.
When the Navi Yonah was running away from Hashem, he got swallowed up by a big fish. But even there, when he was getting punished for an aveira he did, he was able to recognize Hashem!
Because no matter where a Yid goes or what a Yid does, Hashem is always with us.
Hashem wants us to fix our aveira and use it to do even better in the future.
Later in the maamar, we learn how Hashem helps us in such a situation!
Hashem helps Yidden by giving us plenty of the most powerful kochos that there are.
Imagine that there is a king who has a strong enemy living nearby. One day a big war starts! The king sends out his generals and his armies, and soon they see that this war is very serious.
The king knows that he MUST win this war, no matter what!
He opens up all of his rooms filled with treasures. He gives his generals and officers all of the gold, silver, and jewels that he has — even though a lot of it will be wasted. He is ready to use it all up so he will win the war.
Hashem gives each of us tremendous Ruchnius treasures! We can use as much of these kochos as we need to win the war against our Yetzer Hara and to make the sheker of the world into a home for Hashem.
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Once we have finished the Seder HaKorbanos, the order of the Avodah in the Beis Hamikdash, we say a special tefillah to Hashem.
We say, “Hashem, You told us to bring the Korban Tomid and the Ketores! But now, because of our aveiros, we have no Beis Hamikdash, and we can’t bring them. So please, count the words we say as if we had brought the real korbanos, like the posuk says, ‘Uneshalma Parim Sefaseinu.’”
Because this paragraph is Tachanun, asking Hashem to forgive our aveiros, we only say it on days when we say Tachanun.
(For those that wear a Tallis or Tefillin, here is the place where they put them on.)
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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.
Today we will learn more details about how to know when things are one kind:
What if there is a bowl that is full of green apples, and some of the apples are good, and some of them are rotten? Can we choose just the good ones?
Even though they are all green apples, the ones that are not good apples are counted as a separate type. People don’t eat rotten apples, only regular ones! It could be borer to separate them, and we need to follow the rules of how to take the good apples in a way of eating.
What if there is a plate with lots of pieces of salmon, and some of them are from the middle of the fish, and some of them are from the end of the fish, with more bones? Can we choose just the ones with less bones to serve at the Shabbos meal?
Since people eat and enjoy salmon even if there are bones, it is not counted as a separate kind of food. Some of the pieces might be easier to eat, but they are all the same thing — pieces of salmon for eating. We would be allowed to choose just the pieces from the middle, and it is not the isur of borer.
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 Rebbe accepted the nesius at the farbrengen of Yud Shevat 5711. The last thing the Rebbe said before leaving this farbrengen was that Chassidim need to work together with shalom and Achdus to bring the Geulah.
The Rebbe explained the posuk “Ki Besimcha Seitzeiu” (which was usually sung at the end of the Rebbe’s farbrengens) to show what happens when we have shalom.
1) First, a good eitza to have Shalom and Achdus is to have simcha! When we are besimcha, it is easier to have Shalom. This is hinted to in the posuk, because first we say “Besimcha Seitzeiu” (go out with simcha), and then “Uveshalom Tuvalun” (and you will be brought with shalom).
2) Sometimes things are hard for us. When we have shalom, these things not only won’t be in the way, but they will help us to do even more! We say this in the posuk, “Heharim Vehagva’os Yiftzechu Lifneichem Rina,” “the mountains and hills,” which usually block people, “will burst into song in front of you” — they will start to help you!
3) When we have shalom, the nevuos about Moshiach will come true! We hint to this in the posuk, by saying “Vechol Atzei Hasadeh Yimcha’u Chof,” that all the trees of the field will clap hands. Rashi explains that this is because the trees will ALL give fruit, which is one of the nevuos which will take place in the times of the Geulah!
See Likutei Sichos chelek Beis page 503
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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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