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CHUMASH
Parshas Tetzaveh - Shlishi with Rashi
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Today we will learn how Hashem tells Moshe Rabbeinu to make the rest of the Kohanim’s special clothes!
The Kohen Gadol should wear a special robe, called a Me’il. It should be made out of turquoise wool (that’s like a light blue color). It needs to have a special kind of neck so it doesn’t tear.
On the bottom of the Me’il there are colorful woolen balls shaped like pomegranates, and gold bells between them. (There were 72 pomegranate-shaped balls and 72 bells around the bottom of the Me’il!)
The Kohen Gadol will wear these clothes when he goes to do his avodah in the Mishkan or Beis Hamikdash. The bells will ring, and people will hear that the Kohen Gadol is coming.
The Kohen Gadol should also wear a special sign on his forehead, called a Tzitz. It is like a flat rectangle made of gold, that has the words “Kadosh LaHashem” (holy to Hashem) written on it in a way that the letters stick out.
The Tzitz should have strings that match the Me’il to keep it on the Kohen Gadol’s forehead, under the place where he wears his Tefillin. When the Kohen Gadol wears it, Hashem will forgive the Yidden for any aveiros they did with bringing korbanos the wrong way.
The Kohen Gadol will also need a Kesones, a long shirt; a Mitznefes, a round hat, and an Avnet, a belt to wear around the Kesones.
A regular kohen, a Kohen Hedyot, will have a Kesones (long shirt) like the Kohen Gadol, with an Avnet (belt) for his kesones too. He should have a different kind of hat, though, called a Migba’as.
Moshe should dress the Kohanim himself, to start them in their holy Avodah.
All of the Kohanim, and the Kohen Gadol too, should have a pair of short pants, called Michnasayim to wear so they are dressed in a way of Tznius.
All of these clothes should be worn every time a Kohen works in the Mishkan. They are not allowed to do the Avodah without wearing these special clothes!
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In Kapitel Samach (6), the first of today’s Tehillim, we have a posuk that says “Lemaan Yeichaltzun Yedidecha, Hoshia Yemincha Va’aneini.” (We also say it by the end of Shmoneh Esrei.)
This posuk tells us why Hashem sometimes makes things hard for a person: “Hashem does this so that He can save them, and will help with His right hand and answer.” Really, the whole time Hashem wants to save the person, but he wants them to show that they believe in Hashem all the time, not just when things are easy. Then everyone will know they DESERVE their brachos!
Even though sometimes things are hard for us, it’s just because Hashem wants to give us more brachos later!
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Chof-Tes
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We are learning how to get rid of timtum, so that the light of our neshama can shine in our heart and make us excited about the Elokus our neshama knows. We are doing this by thinking about how low the guf is, so it won’t be able to block the neshama anymore.
Do you have a bike or a scooter or a car?
You probably take very good care of your bike, but is it you? Are you your bike? No! Your bike is a vehicle, that helps you get to where you need to go.
That’s how it is by a tzadik. His body is like a car, that helps him do his Avodas Hashem.
But by a beinoni, or someone who is trying to be a beinoni, the body is not like a bicycle. The body is YOU! We sometimes even feel like the NESHAMA is something separate, that gives us koach and chayus!
We say this every morning in Birchos Hashachar — “Elokai Neshama Shenasata Bi,” “Hashem, the neshama that You put into me,” meaning that we are our guf, and Hashem put our neshama as something separate inside of us!
The real truth is that the pnimius of every Yid is the neshama. But when a Yid is feeling a little bit of gaava, remembering that we are not tzadikim, that we are regular people who are not perfect, will help us feel humble. This will make it easier for us to have an open heart to serve Hashem.
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During davening, the best thing is for a person to think deep Torah secrets about Hashem, as explained in Kabbalah.
But what if someone doesn’t know all of these kavanos, or it’s too hard to remember them in the right place?
Then there is just one kavana to remember: To think about how we want Hashem to hear our tefillah, just as if we had all of the kavanos we’re supposed to have!
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Since we’re starting a new set of halachos in Rambam, halachos about cases in Beis Din, we have a new mitzvah today — we’ll be learning it for the next few days! The mitzvah (Mitzvas Asei #246) is that whenever two people disagree about money in Beis Din, we need to follow the halachos about what to do.
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RAMBAM
Hilchos To'ein Venit'an
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In today’s Rambam, we learn some of the details of the halachos the Torah tells us to do if two people come to Beis Din with an argument over money or property. Very often one of them needs to make a shevuah, a special kind of promise, that they don’t owe anything.
Perek Alef: If two people come to Beis Din and agree about part of the money — like if Reuven says “you owe me $100!” and Shimon says, “I owe you money, but only $50” — then Shimon needs to make a shevuah that he only owes $50 and pay the money right away.
In Perek Beis we learn about when the Beis Din doesn’t let someone make a shevuah — if they are a person that we think might make a false shevuah. For example, the Beis Din won’t let a gambler make a shevuah.
Perek Gimmel: If a person only agrees about a very little part of the money, less than a perutah, he doesn’t make a shevuah. He also doesn’t make a shevuah if the amount they are arguing over is worth less than two me’in. So if the two people are arguing over dates, and one person says “You owe me 100 dates!” but the other person says, “I only owe you 90,” they are only arguing about 10 of the dates. If 10 dates isn’t worth at least 2 me’in, the person doesn’t make a shevuah. And if someone says “You owe me $100!” but the other person says that he only owes him less than a perutah, then he doesn’t make a shevuah.
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Today we learn many halachos about problems with an animal’s body which would make it treif. Certain holes in the lungs, stomach, or heart mean that the animal is a tereifah and cannot be eaten.
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Our parsha starts off with “Ve’ata Tetzaveh Es Bnei Yisroel,” that Hashem is telling Moshe to command the Yidden, “Veyikchu Eilecha Shemen Zayis Zach, Kasis Lamaor, Lehaalos Ner Tomid,” the Yidden should bring to Moshe pure olive oil, crushed (kosis) for light, to make the light shine constantly.
The Rebbe explains that this posuk can also mean, “You (Moshe) should connect (tetzaveh) the Yidden with Hashem — by making their Emunah strong. Then they will bring to you (Moshe) something that you didn’t have before, a Ruchnius light that comes from their Emunah! This light comes from them being kosis, crushed from being in Golus. And this will shine constantly.”
Just like Moshe Rabbeinu brought out the Emunah in his generation, there is a Moshe Rabbeinu in every generation who helps strengthen the Emunah of the Yidden in his time!
In our time, the Rebbe told us that Moshiach is about to come, and that we will soon be able to see Elokus in this world — the world will be the way it is supposed to be! But right now we don’t see it, and that hurts a Yid very much. The Golus brings out the deepest part of a Yid’s neshama, to ask Hashem to bring Moshiach, and to do whatever we can so it will happen sooner.
This is like what happens when an olive is squeezed (which is what the word “kosis” means). When the olive is squeezed, the oil comes out — the best part! When we feel “squeezed” by the Golus, it also brings out the best part of a Yid, and it makes a difference in everything that we do.
See the Maamar Ve’ata Tetzaveh 5752
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At the end of Ashrei, there is a posuk added from another kapitel: “Va’anachnu Nevarech Kah, Me’Ata Ve’ad Olam Halelukah.” “And we will bless Hashem, from now and forever, praised is Hashem!”
Why do we add this posuk to Ashrei? There are two reasons:
1) After Ashrei, we will say 5 more paragraphs, the last 5 kapitelach of Tehillim. The last word of each of these kapitelach is exactly the same as the first word of the next kapitel! They all start and end with the word Hallelukah, “praised is Hashem.”
We want to connect Ashrei with these next paragraphs, by having it ALSO end with the word Hallelukah. This way, the last word of Ashrei is the same as the first word of the next paragraph. We add this posuk from kapitel Kuf-Tes-Vov, which ends with the word Hallelukah.
But we add this line EVERY time we say Ashrei, even when we DON’T say the other paragraphs starting with Hallelukah! So that can’t be the only reason!
Here is another reason we add this last line to Ashrei:
2) The Chachomim teach us that someone who says the kapitel Tehillah Ledovid (the main part of Ashrei) three times a day is promised Olam Haba! That’s why we say Ashrei two times in Shacharis, and once in Mincha, so that we say it three times every day.
This last line is asking Hashem to keep the promise of giving us Olam Haba in the zechus of saying Ashrei. We ask Hashem that we should be able to praise Him now (Mei’ata) and in Olam Haba too (Ve’ad Olam)!
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When we daven or bentch, we are careful not to do things that will distract us from having kavana.
The Alter Rebbe tells us that lechatchila, we shouldn’t do any distracting kinds of things when we say ANY bracha, like brachos before we eat or Asher Yatzar.
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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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A certain family of Chassidim who lived in Miami used to go to the Rebbe every year for Yechidus close to Yud-Beis Tammuz.
This family only had girls, and at the end of each Yechidus, they would ask a bracha to have a baby boy as well. But the Rebbe never answered them, so after several years, they stopped asking.
One year, they were very surprised when the Rebbe asked them why they weren’t asking for a bracha for children. The Rebbe pointed out that the father was a kohen. “Moshiach is coming, and we need kohanim to serve in the Beis Hamikdash!”
A year later, the family had a baby boy on Yud-Beis Tammuz. They named him Yosef Yitzchok.
One of the things we can learn from this story is how we should think about what we are learning now in Chumash! We shouldn’t think that the Kohanim and the Bigdei Kehunah were just something used in the Mishkan and the Beis Hamikdash thousands of years ago. They are something we hope to use very soon, with the Kohanim that are living today, in the Third Beis Hamikdash — Sheyiboneh Bimheira Beyameinu Amen!
From Moshiach Weekly
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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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