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CHUMASH
Parshas Yisro - Shvi'i with Rashi
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In today’s Chumash, we continue to learn what happened during Matan Torah and afterwards!
When Hashem said the Aseres Hadibros, the Yidden could hear and SEE Hashem’s words! It was so powerful, they shook and backed up far away from Har Sinai! Malochim came and calmed the Yidden down and brought them back.
After the Yidden heard the Aseres Hadibros they asked that now Moshe should talk to them, because even though they can hear from Hashem, they need a neis to hear. Now they want to hear Hashem’s words in a way that their guf can hear them.
Moshe told the Yidden that they really don’t need to worry, since it’s good for them to be scared — it will bring Yiras Shomayim! Still, Hashem told Moshe to talk to the Yidden himself, so Moshe went high up on Har Sinai, into the cloud, and the rest of the Yidden stood back.
Later, when Moshe went up on Har Sinai for 40 days, Hashem told Moshe to remind the Yidden that they heard Hashem! They should be very careful not to do any kind of Avodah Zarah, to think that Hashem needs any “help.”
Later the Yidden will build a Mizbeiach to serve Hashem in the way Hashem wants!
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In today’s Tehillim (which are part of Hallel), one of the pesukim is “Ram Al Kol Goyim Hashem” — “Hashem is higher than all of the nations.”
Chassidus explains that this posuk tells us what the Goyim think. They think that Hashem is high up in the sky, much higher than them. They think that Hashem is “too big” to pay attention to the world.
But that’s not true! Hashem isn’t higher than the world, Hashem is IN the world all the time! Hashem makes every detail in the world happen B’Hashgacha Protis!
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Chof-Daled
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We learned before that Hashem made the world in a way that He should be hidden, but when we learn Torah and do mitzvos, Hashem is not hiding.
Now, the Alter Rebbe says, do you know what happens if a Yid chas veshalom decides to do an aveira?
He is choosing to be part of the world where Hashem is hidden! But what he is doing is worse — the rest of the world isn’t hiding Hashem on purpose — that’s just the way Hashem made them. But if a Yid has a chance for Hashem to STOP hiding, and instead he decides to make Hashem stay hiding, that’s even worse!
So someone who does an aveira or decides not to do a mitzvah (chas veshalom) is CHOOSING to keep Hashem hiding, they are choosing to STAY in Golus! Why would anyone do something so foolish?
The Alter Rebbe tells us that this comes from a “Ruach Shtus” — a feeling of narishkeit from the Yetzer Hara. This Ruach Shtus can hide the Ahava Mesuteres, the love for Hashem that we all have inside. It can make someone think that it’s “only a small aveira,” and that it won’t keep Hashem in Golus.
But that’s not true! When a Yid does ANY aveira, he is separating himself from Hashem — he is going even farther away from Hashem than a non-kosher bug!
So it makes no sense to do any aveira — ANY aveira separates a Yid from Hashem as much as Avodah Zarah!
When a person does an aveira, it is like they are taking their heilige neshama and putting it into a smelly garbage can! Does it make sense to say “well, it’s only for one minute?”
Even though there are many different punishments for different aveiros, and some are bigger than others, that’s only AFTER the aveira was done. During an aveira, a person is separated from Hashem chas veshalom, and becoming separated from Hashem is the worst possible thing there could be, no matter how small the punishment might be later!
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Like this year, in the year the Hayom Yom was written, today was Shabbos Parshas Yisro, Shabbos Mevorchim Adar Alef. The Rebbe teaches us a minhag for Parshas Yisro, and reminds us of the minhagim of Shabbos Mevorchim.
The Rebbe teaches us a minhag that we should do in Shul on Parshas Yisro: We stand during Aseres Hadibros and face the Sefer Torah.
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The posuk says that by Matan Torah “the Yidden saw Hashem and moved back.” Just by SEEING Elokus, the Yidden moved back, which is a sign that they had chayus. This shows us that if we are connected to kedusha, we have chayus!
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The Tzemach Tzedek said that if we knew the koach of saying Tehillim, we would say it all the time! The words of Tehillim break through everything that is in their way, and go higher and higher to bow in front of Hashem and bring down lots of bracha!
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There are 3 mitzvos in today’s Sefer Hamitzvos:
1) (Mitzvas Asei #235) A non-Jewish slave works for a Yid forever, unless the Yid hurts him in certain ways.
We learn this from a posuk in Parshas Behar: לְעֹלָם בָּהֶם תַּעֲבֹדוּ
The halachos of this mitzvah are explained in Mesechta Kiddushin and Mesechta Gittin.
2) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #254) If a non-Jewish slave runs away to Eretz Yisroel, he becomes free and becomes a ger. It is asur to give him back to whoever bought him. Instead, the amount of money he is worth needs to be paid to the person who owned him before, and he doesn’t go back to being a slave.
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Ki Seitzei: לֹא תַסְגִּיר עֶבֶד אֶל אֲדֹנָיו
The dinim of this mitzvah are also explained in Mesechta Kiddushin and Mesechta Gittin.
3) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #255) It is asur to say anything mean to a non-Jewish slave who ran away to Eretz Yisroel and became a Yid.
We learn this mitzvah from the next posuk in Parshas Ki Seitzei: עִמְּךָ יֵשֵׁב בְּקִרְבְּךָ בַּמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יִבְחַר ... בַּטּוֹב לוֹ לֹא תּוֹנֶנּוּ
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more of the halachos of the shtar (document) that the master gives to his servant to make him free.
In Perek Zayin, we learn that if many servants are going free, each servant needs his own shtar to say that he is free. We also learn that the master has to say that he owns NOTHING that belongs to the servant! If he writes that the servant is free, but he still has to polish the master’s shoes, the shtar isn’t good.
Perek Ches teaches us that if a Jew sells a slave to a non-Jew, he gets a knas (fine) that he has to pay up to 10 times as much as the slave is worth to set him free!
There are also other things that the master can do that will set his slave free. For example if he puts tefillin on his slave, that shows that he doesn’t consider him a servant anymore, and he goes free! But if he taught him Torah that’s not a proof that he doesn’t consider him a servant.
We also learn the last two mitzvos of a slave that escapes to Eretz Yisroel, not to send him back, and to treat him well.
Finally, in Perek Tes, the Rambam teaches us a very important lesson in our lives. Although we are allowed to be strict and make our non Jewish slave work hard, a Yid should have rachmanus. The Chachomim would give from all of their food and drink to their slaves and feed them first. Hashem has rachmanus on those who have rachmanus on others.
With that we finish the halachos of avadim (slaves), and the whole sefer, Sefer Kinyan!
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We learn about the isur of eating blood: The Rambam teaches how we get meat ready to eat, by taking out the blood. One of the ways to do this is to soak the meat in water, and then pour salt on it to help the blood come out. Afterwards, we wash the meat in water until the water doesn’t turn red anymore. This is called Melicha.
(Nowadays, when we buy meat or chicken from a kosher store, this has already been done.)
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The Frierdiker Rebbe told over the following story: (This story was also printed in the introduction to a sefer called Pokeiach Ivrim, a sefer written by the Mitteler Rebbe for the Baal Teshuvah we will learn about in this story.)
One of the Alter Rebbe’s chassidim, a big chossid and lamdan, came to the Alter Rebbe for Yechidus. He was shocked to hear what the Alter Rebbe told him — that for his neshama, it is better that he be a Baal Agolah, a wagon driver, than to become a Rav!
At first, he didn’t think it was the time yet to stop his learning and go do that kind of work. But when he was offered a job as a Rav, he realized that now was the time to do what the Alter Rebbe told him.
He went and learned how to take care of horses, how to feed them and brush them and harness them to the wagon. Spending his day on taking care of his horses and driving people where they wanted to go took up his whole day. He wasn’t able to spend a long time on his davening and learning anymore — he had to daven quickly in the morning, and only review his learning by heart as he drove the wagon.
After a few years of doing this, he ended up at an inn, where he met a certain Yid who had stopped keeping mitzvos. That Yid ended up learning from the chossid, and became a Baal Teshuvah!
Later, the chossid was told by the Mitteler Rebbe that he could stop being a Baal Agolah, and that now he should become a mashpia of a certain town.
The Rebbe said that we see from here that all the years the chossid was a Baal Agolah was for one reason: To be able to help a Yid to do teshuvah. It was worth it for him to stop doing his own avodah of davening and learning all the time, the way he was used to, just to help another Yid to become a Baal Teshuvah!
See sicha of Purim 5722, letter of the Frierdiker Rebbe in the introduction to Pokeiach Ivrim
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Really the Chachomim had many other kapitelach of praise to Hashem that they wanted to put in davening. But that would have made the davening much longer! Since working during the week is a very important part of serving Hashem, these kapitelach are not part of davening on a weekday, to give us more time to work.
But on Shabbos, when we have more time to spend on davening and learning, we add 12 kapitelach of Tehillim, along with Ho’aderes Veha’emunah, before Boruch She’amar. This way, we say the many praises of Hashem!
The meforshim explain why these kapitelach specifically were chosen. There are reasons in Niglah and in Kabbalah.
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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.
We are allowed to play board games on Shabbos, even if they have pieces with different colors or shapes that we need to split up before we start to play.
But if there is a game that is JUST about sorting pieces, it is not appropriate to play on Shabbos. When we separate pieces in order to use them, we are able to show that it is not in a way of melacha.
But if we are only sorting them out to separate them, that DOES look like the melacha 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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Nowadays, we have a very special avodah: To get ready for Moshiach!
How do we get ready for Moshiach?
The Rebbe tells us that the best way to prepare for Moshiach is to start practicing now! We should do things now like we will do them when Moshiach comes.
When Moshiach comes, the whole world will recognize Hashem! Everyone and everything will realize that Hashem is the true King of the entire world, and that there is nothing aside for Hashem.
So to prepare for Moshiach, we should start now — helping the world recognize Hashem!
How do we do that?
We work hard to spread Yiddishkeit! We do more and more mitzvos, and help others to do them too. We teach people Torah and make a Kiddush Hashem!
This way, the world will be getting ready for the time when EVERY Yid is doing mitzvos all the time and the whole world will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem!
See Likutei Sichos chelek Chof-Gimmel, p. 487
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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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