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CHUMASH
Parshas Ki Sisa - Shvi'i with Rashi
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We learned before how Moshe Rabbeinu went up on Har Sinai for the second Luchos.
Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu to write down all the things He said, but not the explanations! The words Hashem said are part of the Torah Shebichsav, but the explanations are Torah Shebaal Peh which needs to be learned by heart. (Only much later did the Chachomim write it down so Yidden wouldn’t forget).
Moshe stayed on Har Sinai for 40 days and nights, and didn’t eat or drink. His Guf became so holy that he was like a malach who doesn’t NEED to eat!
On Yom Kippur, Hashem forgave the Yidden and wrote the words on the luchos.
Moshe came down that day from Har Sinai, carrying the new luchos. Moshe didn’t realize that since he had become so holy, his face was shining! The Yidden were afraid to come close to him! (Rashi tells us that from here we see the strong effect that an aveira has on a Yid. Before the aveira, they were able to even see Hashem’s kavod, but now they weren’t able to look at Moshe’s face shining with kedusha, without being afraid. )
Because of this, Moshe would have to TELL them to come and learn Torah. First Aharon would come, and Moshe would teach him. Then Aharon’s sons would come also, and Moshe would teach it again. Then the leaders would come too, and Moshe taught it again. Finally, all of the Yidden would come and hear the Torah Moshe was teaching.
After he finished teaching, Moshe would wear a veil (like a mask!) over his face, so they could look at him without being scared.
When Moshe left, Aharon would teach everyone the new halachos over again, and then he would leave too. Then Aharon’s sons would teach it over again, and leave. Finally, the leaders of the Yidden would repeat the Torah, so that all of the Yidden heard it 4 times.
Moshe would wear the veil all the time, except when he went to talk to Hashem and then to go teach the Yidden the new Torah he heard.
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Kapitel Kuf-Zayin starts with the words “Hodu LaHashem Ki Tov, Ki LeOlam Chasdo!” “Thank Hashem because He is good, His kindness is forever!”
The first word is “Hodu,” which means to thank. But it also means something else! Hodu also means to “admit.”
What are we admitting to?
The Tzemach Tzedek explains this. We know that Hashem is creating the world EVERY SECOND and is here EVERY MOMENT. But we don’t see it! So we need to admit that it’s true anyway.
When Moshiach comes, we won’t have to admit it anymore — we will all be able to see it!
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Lamed-Alef
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Today we are finishing the hisbonenus that we have been learning about for the past few perakim. One day a week in a Shana Me’uberes we have a very long Tanya, and this year (like the first year it was made for) it is on Shabbos. We will learn the whole Perek Lamed-Alef!
We are learning about a hisbonenus, a thought process, that we can use when we are not feeling interested in davening with avodah and fighting the Yetzer Hara, like by looking for ways to have iskafya. The Alter Rebbe gives an eitza, that we should think about things that make us feel humble.
In today’s Tanya, the Alter Rebbe tells us that even though these humbling thoughts can bring us a moment of sadness, it is okay. This sadness will break the Yetzer Hara’s pride, which is keeping us from doing our Avodas Hashem right.
If we do the hisbonenus properly, these thoughts will not only NOT make us sad, but they will bring us to have MORE chayus and serve Hashem the way we should!
But this hisbonenus works best and should be done at certain times: When the Yetzer Hara is stopping us from doing our Avodah properly, and we’re in a sad mood anyway. That’s a good time to do this hisbonenus, which can help us in many ways.
In fact, by doing this we will be using our sad mood for a good thing, which will take away our sad mood altogether! The Alter Rebbe tells us that not only will it take away the sad mood, but if our sad mood was for a reason, Hashem will take away whatever was making us sad!
After we think about all the things that make us feel humble, we realize that we are very far from Hashem and from the way we should be. But we also realize that that’s only from the Guf and the Nefesh Habehamis!
We are Yidden! Inside each of us is a neshama, a part of Hashem! We have Rachmonus on our neshama that it is stuck inside this low guf.
We feel so bad for our neshama, we want to do something to help it! We make it our goal to help the neshama connect to Hashem the way it was before it came into the guf, by learning Torah and doing mitzvos — and especially davening with kavana, because during davening the neshama is able to go out of its Golus in the guf!
This brings us to have tremendous simcha, that we have the opportunity to connect our neshama to Hashem through Torah and Avodah!
When a person realizes that he is able to connect his neshama to Hashem through Torah and mitzvos, he will decide that this is something he wants to be busy with for his whole life!
That’s why the Chachomim teach us that a Yid should do teshuvah all his life — Kol Yamav BeTeshuvah. It is not talking about teshuvah from an aveira, but teshuvah meaning to return and reconnect the neshama to Hashem. This is a kind of teshuvah a person can do all his life, and it is something that can be done with great simcha! The Alter Rebbe gives us a mashal that helps us understand the great simcha we have:
It is like a prince who was captured, and had to do hard work in prison, while covered with garbage. Imagine how happy he would be when he is freed and can go back home to the king!
The same thing is with our neshama: Imagine how happy our neshama is to connect to Hashem through Torah and mitzvos! Even though our guf is still low and dirty, we are so happy that we can connect our neshama with Hashem again! The Nefesh Habehamis may not have become kedusha, but the neshama is the most important thing! Having a low guf may be a sad thing, but that doesn’t take away from our simcha at all!
Then the Alter Rebbe tells us something we can think about to make our simcha even MORE!
Did we choose to have a low guf that will try to shlep us away from Hashem?
Of course not! Hashem GAVE us that guf.
And why did Hashem do that?
Because Hashem wants us to bring our guf up to Hashem too!
When we learn the halachos of Torah and do mitzvos using our guf, we are not only connecting our neshama to Hashem, we are bringing our guf up with us too!
That will bring us a stronger simcha because we will realize that not only does it bring joy for our neshama, but for our guf as well, because it is doing what Hashem created it for!
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The Rebbe Rashab writes in a maamar that even though the third seudah of Shabbos (Shalosh Seudos) is different that we don’t need to wash, we should still eat at least something.
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The Alter Rebbe teaches that we need to be very careful about davening Mincha. Mincha is a very special Tefillah! Shacharis is before we start our day, and Maariv is when we finish the day. Mincha is right in the middle — we’re doing a lot of things, and STILL we stop to daven to Hashem!
Based on this, the Alter Rebbe explains a deeper meaning of what the Chachomim say about Mincha, “Leolam Yehei Adam Zahir” “a person should always be careful” with davening Mincha:
Leolam usually means “always,” but it also has the word “olam,” “world.” So we can explain this to mean that the Chachomim are teaching us about the Avodah of a Yid in the world:
Yehei Adam usually means that a person should be. But we can also translate it as, “be a person!” Be a person, who does what they know is right (Moach Shalit Al Halev).
Zahir usually means careful, but it can also mean “to shine” — meaning that the Ruchnius can shine into the Gashmius.
So the Avodah of a Yid in the world is to be a mentch, to be in control of our behavior, and make the Ruchnius shine into the Gashmius.
Where do we see this? In the avodah of davening Mincha!
When we are able to stop whatever important things we are doing in the middle of the day, and go to connect to Hashem in tefillah, that shows that we are doing our job in the world! We show that we have Moach Shalit Al Halev, and that the Ruchnius is more important to us than the Gashmius!
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SEFER HAMITZVOS
Shiur #315 - Mitzvas Asei #226, #227, #230, #231, Lo Saasei #66
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In today’s Sefer Hamitzvos we learn 5 more mitzvos. The first two are kinds of Misas Beis Din — the ways Beis Din needs to punish people who are Chayav Misa.
1) (Mitzvas Asei #226) The Beis Din needs to follow the halachos of Hereg
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Mishpatim: נָקֹם יִנָּקֵם
2) (Mitzvas Asei #227) The Beis Din needs to follow the halachos of Chenek
We also learn this mitzvah from Parshas Mishpatim: מוֹת יוּמָת
We learn the details of both of these mitzvos in Mesechta Sanhedrin perek Zayin.
3) (Mitzvas Asei #230) After being put to death, people who did certain aveiros need to be hung
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Ki Seitzei: וְתָלִיתָ אֹתוֹ עַל עֵץ
4) (Mitzvas Asei #231) A person who is put to death by Beis Din needs to be buried on the same day. Part of this mitzvah is also that a person who passes away should be buried on that day (unless it is more kavod for the meis to wait before burying him).
We also learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Ki Seitzei: כִּי קָבוֹר תִּקְבְּרֶנּו בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא ּ
5) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #66) It is asur to leave a person hanging overnight. We learned in today’s third mitzvah that the Beis Din needs to punish people for certain aveiros by hanging them. These aveiros are connected to Avodah Zarah or Birchas Hashem, the opposite of bentching Hashem. The reason we don’t leave a person hanging overnight is so that Yidden won’t be reminded about these aveiros.
We also learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Ki Seitzei: לֹא תָלִין נִבְלָתוֹ עַל הָעֵץ
We learn the details of all of these mitzvos in Mesechta Sanhedrin perek Vov.
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Today we learn more of Hilchos Sanhedrin, the halachos of a Beis Din and how the judges need to act.
Perek Zayin: One interesting halacha is called Zabla — if two people who are arguing (like about money) and each want to go to a different judge, they can each choose one judge, and then those judges pick out a third judge to make sure that the halacha will be paskened in a fair way.
Perek Ches and Tes teach us the halachos about following the Rov (majority), what most judges say. We act differently when it is a case of Dinei Nefashos, when someone may be Chayav Misa.
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Today we learn halachos about a person who was forced to make a promise. Very often it is not counted as a real shevuah.
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There were four differences between the first and second Luchos:
1) The Luchos themselves: The first luchos were made by Hashem, but the second ones Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu to make.
2) The writing of the luchos: The words of the Aseres Hadibros were not engraved in the second set of luchos as they were in the first.
3) The Yidden: When the Yidden got the first luchos, they were like tzadikim (at Matan Torah). But when they got the second Luchos, they were like Baalei Teshuvah.
4) Moshe Rabbeinu: Moshe Rabbeinu got a special Ruchnius light as a present with the first luchos, but it was taken away by Cheit Ha’egel and with the second Luchos, he only got it back on Shabbos.
It looks like the first Luchos were much better!
But there was something very special about the second Luchos: They were given along with Halacha, Midrash, and Aggadah — we got much more Torah! And also, Moshe’s face was shining with the second Luchos.
See Hayom Yom Shiva-Asar B’Tammuz
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By saying Yishtabach, we finish the part of davening called Pesukei Dezimra, where we praise Hashem. Now we are ready to go on to Shema. Then we will daven Shemoneh Esrei, where we will ask Hashem for all of our needs!
But if we are davening with a minyan, we first say Kaddish and Barchu.
What is Barchu?
The Chazan says, “Barchu Es Hashem Hamevorach!” Let’s go bentch Hashem Who is blessed!
Everyone bows and answers, “Baruch Hashem Hamevorach Le’olam Va’ed!” Blessed is Hashem, the One Who is blessed, forever!
One of the reasons for saying Barchu now is from the Zohar. According to the Zohar, we need to make sure to bring the Shechinah into our minyan before we daven. We do this by bentching Hashem together first. Once the Shechinah is resting fully in our minyan, we can go daven together.
See Mesechta Shel Tefillah
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It is the minhag not to say “Good Shabbos” after Mincha time on Shabbos.
This is because at Mincha time on Shabbos is when Moshe Rabbeinu, Yosef Hatzadik, and Dovid Hamelech passed away. (This is also why we say the 3 pesukim of Tzidkoscha after Shemoneh Esrei during Shabbos Mincha, for these three tzadikim.)
See the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch with Biurei Halacha, siman 292 se’if 5
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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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It is written in Seforim that in the year 5500 from the Creation of the world, 500 years before the year 6000, the lights of Geulah will start to shine in the world.
Very close to that year, on Chai Elul 5494 (about 5 years from 5500) is when the Baal Shem Tov was first revealed, and his teachings started to shine throughout the world. The teachings of the Baal Shem Tov are a spark of the light of Moshiach!
Through spreading this spark of Chassidus, “Yafutzu Maayanosecha Chutza,” we will soon have the COMPLETE light of Moshiach, with the Geulah Sheleimah Bekarov Mamosh, VERY soon!
Migdal Oz p. 492; Otzar Pisgomei Chabad vol. 2, p. 422
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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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