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CHUMASH
Parshas Mishpatim - Shlishi with Rashi
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Parshas Mishpatim teaches us many mitzvos, especially those that make sure we treat each other fairly. Even though these mitzvos make sense, and because of that they are called Mishpatim, we keep them because they are mitzvos of Hashem. We remember that Hashem gave us ALL of the mitzvos — even the ones that someone might think we could come up with ourselves.
Here are the mitzvos we learn about today:
First we learn about the different types of damages that a person can cause to someone else’s property.
- If someone lets their animal go into another person’s field, he needs to pay for anything that gets ruined.
- If a person starts a fire, and it spreads into another person’s field, he needs to pay them for the damages.
Then, we learn about the four Shomrim, the responsibility a person has when they have something that belongs to someone else.
- Shomer Chinam: If someone is watching something for another person without getting paid for it, and the thing gets lost or stolen, he needs to make a shevuah (a promise made in Beis Din) that it wasn’t his fault, and then he doesn’t have to pay.
- Shomer Sachar: If someone is paid to watch another person’s animal, if it is attacked or stolen, he needs to pay if it was something he should have been more careful about. If there was nothing he could do, he doesn’t have to pay, but he needs to make a shevuah first that he didn’t use it for himself.
- Shoel: If someone borrows something, he needs to pay if it breaks or dies, even if it wasn’t his fault.
- Socher: The Torah tells us about a fourth type of person who has someone else’s thing, called a socher, a renter.
The Torah does not tell us what the din is in the case of a socher, and Rashi brings a machlokes in the Gemara whether it is like a Shomer Chinam or Shomer Sachar.
- If a person acts like he is married to a girl without a proper chasunah (mefateh), he has to marry her. If her father doesn’t want her to be married to that person, the person needs to pay her a lot of money — 50 silver coins.
- A person who uses tumah magic (mechashefah) is punished with Misas Beis Din.
- If someone acts like he is married to an animal, he is also chayav Misas Beis Din.
- If someone worships Avodah Zara, he also gets this punishment by Beis Din.
- It is asur to say not nice things to a ger.
- We are not allowed to make ANY Yid feel bad, especially not an almanah or a yasom (widow or orphan). Hashem especially listens to them when they cry, and there is a serious punishment for someone who is not careful with how they are treated.
- We should lend money if we can to another Yid, especially someone poor. If we know the person cannot pay back, we should not try to force him to pay us.
- Ribbis: We are not allowed to charge interest when we lend money to a Yid.
- Mashkon: If we lend someone money, and took something to make sure that they will pay back, we need to let the person use it at the time he needs it.
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A Chossid once complained to the Rebbe Maharash about how hard it is for him at home, because he has no money. He said (from today’s Tehillim), “MeiAyin Yavo Ezri?” “Where will my help come from?”
The Rebbe Maharash answered, “Your answer is in the next posuk! ‘Ezri Me’Im Hashem, Osei Shomayim VaAretz!’ Your help comes from Hashem, Who takes care of everything in the Shomayim and the earth. He gives everything what it needs in the right time, and He will take care of you too!”
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Chof-Hey
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The Alter Rebbe gives examples today — not just of how a person should be ready to have very painful things so they won’t do even a little aveira, but also how a person should work VERY hard to do a mitzvah!
Sometimes mitzvos aren’t easy. They might be very hard for us, and feel like we can’t do them or we really don’t want to. But because we know that’s what Hashem wants, we’re ready to have Mesiras Nefesh and do them anyway!
The Alter Rebbe tells us about how learning Torah, davening, and giving Tzedakah can be hard for a person. Still, because of the hidden love (Ahava Mesuteres) that we all have for Hashem, we are ready to do ANYTHING to be one with Hashem!
We just need to think about how we would do ANYTHING it takes to stay connected to Hashem, even if Chas Veshalom it would mean to go through terrible pain and suffering. Knowing that should make it easier for us to do things, since they for sure aren’t THAT hard!
Can you think of a mitzvah that’s hard for you? Remind yourself how much you love Hashem, and you will be ready to do even this hard mitzvah!
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Have you ever made a hachlata at a farbrengen? What was it? To learn something extra, or have more Ahavas Yisroel?
In today’s Hayom Yom, we learn about a hachlata that early Chassidim made: That any time that they feel that they have a taavah for something (that they want it very much), they won’t have it! This way, they would break the taavah!
There is a famous story with R’ Shmuel Munkes that helps us understand this.
The Alter Rebbe had many Chassidim. One of these Chassidim was named R’ Shmuel Munkes. R’ Shmuel was known as a big joker, who always had a funny thing to say or a funny way to teach something.
But one day, the other Chassidim learned that he was also a very great chossid!
R’ Shmuel Munkes was sitting at a farbrengen with other Chassidim in shul, late at night. They were singing, making lechaims, and encouraging each other to grow in their avodah. It was a great farbrengen!
But as it got later, the Chassidim started to run out of farbeisen. Farbeisen is something to eat after making a lechaim. Without farbeisen, you can’t have lechaims. And without lechaims, what kind of farbrengen will it be?
The Chassidim felt bad that their farbrengen would have to end. But suddenly, the door of the shul opened, and the butcher came in. He was carrying a big, steaming pot that smelled delicious!
“It’s a fresh cow lung,” the butcher said proudly. “I had two cows shechted today, and one of them was kosher, Boruch Hashem! I decided that the best part, the lung, belongs to the Chassidim. My wife cooked it up, and now I want you to enjoy it at your farbrengen.”
The Chassidim thanked the butcher, and R’ Shmuel Munkes jumped up and took the pot so the butcher could go home. The Chassidim were very excited to have such special farbeisen by their farbrengen, and waited impatiently for R’ Shmuel to serve the roasted lung, which smelled so good.
But R’ Shmuel didn’t give out the meat.
After a few minutes, one of the other Chassidim started to get annoyed. He got up and tried to grab the pot out of R’ Shmuel’s hands so he could give it out himself. But R’ Shmuel turned and jumped onto a bench!
A few of the younger Chassidim started to chase R’ Shmuel so they could grab the pot and continue their farbrengen already, but R’ Shmuel kept running away — jumping onto the tables or benches to get away from them.
Finally, they managed to trap R’ Shmuel in a corner. But before they could take the pot, R’ Shmuel turned and dumped the whole delicious lung into a smelly garbage pail!
The Chassidim were furious! How dare he have the chutzpah to waste good food and mess up their farbrengen? They decided he deserved to be punished for doing that. They hit him a few times, but R’ Shmuel, with a smile still on his face, left the shul for a few minutes to get something.
R’ Shmuel Munkes came back to the farbrengen with a bowl of cabbage salad, but the Chassidim were very disappointed. Salad is good, but it’s not a steaming plate of fresh meat!
Still, they continued the farbrengen.
Suddenly, the door to the shul burst open, and the butcher came in, crying. “Oy vey, what have I done? How will Hashem ever forgive me for giving treife food to all of the holy Chassidim?” The butcher explained that the lung of the non-kosher cow had gotten mixed up with the kosher cow, and by mistake the treif lung got cooked and brought to the Chassidim!
The Chassidim calmed down the butcher, telling him that nobody had eaten even a bite of the meat, and the butcher finally went home, feeling much better.
But now the Chassidim were upset at R’ Shmuel! Was he showing off that he had Ruach Hakodesh? That’s not a very nice way to behave!
R’ Shmuel explained: “I don’t have Ruach Hakodesh at all. All I know is that for many years I have been working on being stronger than my taavos. Over the years, I stopped having taavos for food at all!
“But then, today, I had a very strong taavah to eat the meat. I started to wonder why that would be. But when I saw so many big Chassidim getting so upset because they wanted to eat a piece of meat, I realized that there must be something wrong with it. Why else would the Yetzer Hara want us to eat it so much? So I put it where it belongs — in the garbage.”
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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Asei #201) is a new mitzvah about workers: You have to let your workers eat from what they’re working on when they are harvesting. If they’re picking grapes, you have to let them eat grapes while they’re working. If they’re picking oranges, they can eat oranges!
We learn this from two pesukim in Parshas Ki Seitzei: כִּי תָבֹא בְּכֶרֶם רֵעֶךָ וְאָכַלְתָּ עֲנָבִים וְגוֹ׳ כִּי תָבֹא בְּקָמַת רֵעֶךָ וְקָטַפְתָּ מְלִילֹת בְּיָדֶךָ
The details of this mitzvah are explained in Perek Zayin of Mesechta Bava Metziah.
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more halachos about renting, and we start to learn the halachos of hiring a worker.
In Perek Zayin, the Rambam explains that renting is like buying for a short time. So just like you can make conditions when you sell something, you can make conditions when you rent. For example, you can rent someone your printer with a condition that you need them to print you 5 papers every week.
Perek Ches teaches us about renting a field, in exchange for part of the food that grows. An old man might rent someone his peach orchard, and they will have to give him 1/4 of the money that they make from the peaches every year. We learn that the renter has to take good care of the field! He can’t decide to stop taking away the weeds.
In Perek Tes, we also start learning the halachos about a worker. One halacha is that if you send a worker to pick up a package, and he goes to the right place but can’t find it, you still have to pay him — because he did his best to do what you asked him to do!
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We learn many halachos about not eating or cooking milk and meat together (Basar BeChalav). One halacha is that we aren’t allowed to make milchige bread that looks like regular bread, because someone might eat it with fleishigs by mistake.
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The chossid R’ Binyomin Kletzker was a businessman who worked with lumber.
Once he sat down to make a cheshbon of how much money he had earned. He calculated the price of each of the forests, the workers who chopped down the trees, the cost of bringing the logs to the marketplace, and how much he earned from each log.
At the end, he added up all of the numbers and wrote down the total: Ain Od Milvado — there is nothing except for Hashem!
What is special about this is that R’ Binyomin wasn’t doing this to teach a lesson to anyone, or to make a cute comment. He was really thinking so much about Hashem all the time that he really felt that at the end, the main thing was not the amount of money, but the fact that the whole world is just a part of Hashem.
See sicha of Parshas Re’eh, 5735
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The last section before Boruch She’amar is Kapitel Samach-Zayin, which is also called the Mizmor of the Menorah.
This kapitel, which starts with the words Lamnatzeiach Binginos, has 7 pesukim and 49 words. These represent the 7 branches of the menorah, and the 49 pieces (22 cups, 9 flowers, 11 buttons, and 7 oil cups) on the menorah. When we say it every day, it is counted like we are lighting the menorah in the Beis Hamikdash!
This is also connected to the section of Korbanos which we just finished.
Dovid Hamelech had this kapitel engraved on a golden plaque in the shape of a menorah. He would carry it with him when he went out to war, to help him have hatzlacha in battle!
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It is a mitzvah for every person to make Kiddush on Shabbos, or be yotzei by listening to someone else make Kiddush.
In order to be yotzei someone else’s Kiddush, it is very important to be paying attention the whole time, and not to make a hefsek, interrupting the Kiddush at all!
Many people are used to listening to brachos in shul, and saying “Baruch Hu U’varuch Shemo” to praise Hashem every time they hear the chazan say Hashem’s name in a bracha. But saying this during Kiddush, or any other bracha that you want to be yotzei, is a hefsek! We should be quiet and listen during the whole bracha, and only answer Amen at the end of the bracha. This way we can be yotzei hearing Kiddush.
See Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch siman Kuf-Chof-Daled, se’if 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 Gemara says that a person is judged every day (and according to one opinion, every moment) to see what will happen to him, based on how he acts. But aren’t we already judged on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur to see what will happen the whole year?
The answer is because when Hashem gives us something, it comes through many steps. So even though the brachos are there, the way we act makes the brachos come into Gashmius so we can see them.
But when Moshiach comes, whatever Hashem gives to us will come straight to us and right away!
All of the things that will happen when Moshiach comes are because of the way we act now. What can we do that will make this happen Le’asid Lavo?
We need to make sure that when we give Hashem HIS needs (the mitzvos he wants us to do), it doesn’t go through a bunch of steps!
Sometimes, like on special days or at special times, we make hachlatos. We decide we will do more or better mitzvos! But when it comes to actually doing them, it can take a while. We remember the hachlata, but don’t really do anything about it. Or we might decide later to do just part of the hachlata, and not the whole thing.
We need to start trying to do the WHOLE hachlata, and right away! When we act in this way, not only will Hashem start treating us that Moshiach’dik way now, it is also important to deserve what will happen Le’asid Lavo!
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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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