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CHUMASH
Parshas Toldos - Shvi'i with Rashi
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Rivkah asked Yitzchak to give Yaakov more brachos, and he did.
After giving Yaakov a bracha to find a wife, Yitzchak sent him off to Padan Aram, to the house of Lavan, his uncle (Rivkah’s brother). Yitzchak sent him with presents for his wife, like Avraham did when he sent Eliezer.
When Esav saw that Yitzchak had sent Yaakov to get married and told him not to marry a girl from Canaan, he realized that Yitzchak felt that the Canaani girls were resha’im. To show how he was better than Yaakov, he went and got engaged Machalas, Yishmael’s daughter. He wanted to show that HE didn’t need his father to even tell him to, and that HE married someone from Avraham’s family, not just a cousin.
(Yishmael passed away before they got married, so everyone called her “Achos Nevayos” — the sister of Nevayos, because she took care of the chasuna instead of her father. But he didn’t get rid of his Canaani wives, because this chasunah too was just to trick people.)
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Today’s shiur Tehillim is kapitelach Yud through Yud-Zayin.
Tehillim tidbits from the Rebbeim of Chassidus:
Baal Shem Tov: In Kapitel Yud, it says “Rasha Kegova Apo Bal Yidrosh” — “A Rasha, because of his gaavah and chutzpah, doesn’t think about how Hashem will punish people who deserve it.”
The Baal Shem Tov tells us that this posuk shows us why it is important to be humble to learn Torah properly: A person who is humble will learn from the Chachomim to understand better the way Hashem wants us to live. But a person with gaavah, “Bal Yidrosh” — he thinks he doesn’t need to hear from anyone else to understand better (“Yidrosh” can also mean to learn), he thinks he is smart enough on his own and doesn’t need to learn more.
See Keser Shem Tov siman Kuf-Mem-Tes
Maggid: In Kapitel Tes-Vov, there is a posuk that starts with the words, “Lo Ragal Al Leshono” — “he doesn’t speak Lashon Hara.” This kapitel is talking about the special things a tzadik has in order to go up to Gan Eden.
Because the tzadik is careful with how he speaks, something special happens!
When a person says Lashon Hara, those words go up to Shomayim. Later, when he speaks words of Torah, the Yetzer Hara tries to push away those words because of the words of Lashon Hara that he said. But because a tzadik DOESN’T have Lashon Hara, his words of Torah and Tefillah go straight up to Hashem!
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TANYA
Kuntres Acharon Siman Daled
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The Alter Rebbe is explaining the importance of taking Gashmius things and making them holy, which we also accomplish through davening.
In today’s Tanya, one of things that the Alter Rebbe explains based on this is why Moshe Rabbeinu begged Hashem so much to be able to go into Eretz Yisrael. Why did he want it so much?
The Alter Rebbe explains that mitzvos are very special and close to Hashem. The way Hashem REALLY wants the mitzvos to be done is with gashmius, using things from this world.
There are certain mitzvos you can only do in Eretz Yisroel. If you’re not in Eretz Yisroel, you can keep them by learning about them. But Moshe Rabbeinu wasn’t happy with that. He wanted to do those mitzvos with gashmius, because he knew that’s the best way to do a mitzvah.
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The Gemara tells about an Amora called R’ Elazar. He used to be careful to give tzedakah before he davened.
In a maamar, the Rebbe Maharash explained why: Davening needs to be done with chayus. But we need Hashem’s help to get chayus! When we help ANOTHER Yid to have chayus, by giving tzedakah or helping him in another way, Hashem gives US a lot of chayus for our davening to be very special! (When saying the maamar, the Rebbe Maharash showed with his hands that the chayus is VERY much!)
The Rebbe Rashab was very careful to do this. Before davening, he would LOOK for a poor person to give Tzedakah to!
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We learn two mitzvos today, about korbanos that need to be brought for someone to finish becoming Tahor:
1) (Mitzvas Asei #74) To become tahor enough to eat korbanos, a Zav (a man who has a certain kind of tumah from his body) needs to bring a korban of two birds.
We learn this from the words of the pesukim in Parshas Metzora: וְכִי יִטְהַר הַזָּב מִזּוֹבוֹ וְגוֹ׳ וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁמִינִי יִקַּח לוֹ שְׁתֵּי תֹרִים וְגוֹ׳
2) (Mitzvas Asei #77) After a Metzora gets better from Tzoraas, he needs to bring three animals for korbanos — an Olah, a Chatas, and an Asham — and oil. (A poor person brings one animal and two birds.) Until he does this, he isn’t tahor enough to eat meat from korbanos.
We learn this mitzvah from another posuk in Parshas Metzora: וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁמִינִי יִקַּח שְׁנֵי כְבָשִׂים תְּמִימִם וְכַבְשָׂה אַחַת בַּת שְׁנָתָהּ תְּמִימָה
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RAMBAM
Hilchos Mechusrei Kaparah
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more about the Mechusrei Kaparah, people who are Tahor, but still need to bring korbanos to become completely tahor.
Perek Gimmel: In this perek, we learn about when a Zav can become tahor — he needs to wait a week after the tumah stops coming from his body.
Perek Daled: The Rambam teaches us about the Metzora, and how he brings these korbanos to become completely tahor.
Perek Hey: Now we learn what happens if something isn’t done right with the korbanos of the Metzora.
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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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Today is a Chassidishe Yom Tov!
In about a month we will celebrate Hey Teves, the day when we celebrate Didan Notzach, when even goyim in court recognized what a Rebbe is, and that the seforim that were argued about belong to the Rebbe and to Chassidim. But even though this was decided on Hey Teves, the seforim which were taken from the Rebbe’s library were not brought back until today, Beis Kislev.
When the seforim came back to 770, the Rebbe and Chassidim were very happy!
The Rebbe saw some bochurim standing outside during seder (the time of learning in Yeshiva) waiting for the seforim to come back, and reminded them that Didan Notzach means that we should learn from the seforim and live the way a chossid should!
The Rebbe asked to print some of these seforim, so EVERYONE can learn from them!
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The tenth posuk in the Yud-Beis Pesukim is the posuk of Ve’ahavta.
Ve’ahavta Lereiacha Kamocha — You should love your friend like yourself!
Rabbi Akiva Omer — Rabbi Akiva says about this
Zeh Klal Gadol BaTorah — That it is a very important rule in the Torah!
This posuk speaks about the very special mitzvah of Ahavas Yisroel!
The Rambam tells us that there are two main ways we keep this mitzvah: We should be as careful with our friend’s kavod as we are with our own kavod, and we should be as careful with our friend’s money as we are with our own money!
A person’s kavod is very important to them. We don’t like being embarrassed in front of other people, or when other people make us feel silly or left out. Part of the mitzvah of Ahavas Yisroel is to be careful about other people’s kavod too! We should be careful not to embarrass other people or make them feel left out.
A person’s money is also important to them. We don’t like if people ruin our things, or make us spend money that we worked hard to earn for no reason. Part of Ahavas Yisroel is being careful with other people’s money too! We should be careful with their toys and their books, and not make them spend money when they don’t want to.
Even though, as we learned before, this mitzvah includes all of the mitzvos Bein Adam Lechaveiro, the Rambam and Shulchan Aruch bring these two specific things which we learn from this mitzvah itself.
When we do that, we are following one of the lessons of this posuk!
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Shema is supposed to help us realize that nothing exists aside for Hashem. That will help us be ready to do all of His mitzvos, no matter what!
In order to feel this, we need to have kavana when we say Shema.
We make sure to say Shema out loud, not just in a whisper, because that helps us have kavana.
We also close our eyes and cover them with our right hand when we say the first line of Shema. This helps keep us from getting distracted by the things around us. We are able to think about what the words mean, and that the words should bring us to have Kabolas Ol and Mesiras Nefesh.
See the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, Siman Samach Alef Se’if Hey
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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 Medrash Tehillim says that when Moshiach comes, if a person will try to pull off a fig from a tree on Shabbos (which is one of the Lamed-Tes Melachos), the tree will cry out, “It’s Shabbos today! You can’t do it!”
Then, the world won’t feel separate from Hashem. The Emes, that it was created to fulfill the Ratzon of Hashem, will be so obvious that the world won’t let anything be done against Hashem’s Ratzon!
See Sefer Hasichos 5752, p. 31, ha’ara 42
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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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