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CHUMASH
Parshas Vayishlach - Rishon with Rashi
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In today’s Chumash, Yaakov Avinu prepares to meet Eisav again. He sends messengers to speak to Eisav. But Eisav was still angry, so Yaakov needs to get ready to deal with him.
Now that Yaakov made peace and finished dealing with Lavan, he had to think about dealing with Eisav! He hoped that if he sent a nice message Eisav won’t be angry at him.
Yaakov decided to send messengers to speak to Eisav. He sent malochim that looked like people, so Eisav couldn’t hurt them. Yaakov told the malochim to tell Eisav: “Don’t be upset about the bracha that I will rule over you! For that bracha to come true, I have to first be a big leader — and instead, I’ve just been staying with Lavan for the past 20 years! I couldn’t even come home for all this time because I was busy working for Lavan! Still, I’ve kept all of the mitzvos and didn’t become a rasha like him.
“Remember how our father gave me a bracha that my land will grow wonderful fruit? I don’t have ANY land! All I have are animals and servants. So it looks like the bracha won’t come true while we are alive at all. So I’m sending you this message to say, let’s live in peace!”
But when the malochim came back from giving the message, they said that Eisav didn’t look like a brother who was ready to forgive. He was still a very angry and dangerous Eisav! When he heard that Yaakov was coming, Eisav took 400 soldiers and was coming to attack him.
Yaakov was afraid that Hashem might let Eisav kill him, and he was also upset that he might have to kill other people to save himself. So he got ready in three ways:
1) He got ready for a war. He split up into two parts: One part with all of the animals and servants, and one part with just his family. This way, even if Eisav captures his possessions, his family will stay safe.
2) Then Yaakov davened. He said to Hashem, “You promised to protect me, and told me to go back to Eretz Yisroel.
“But Hashem,” Yaakov said, “I am afraid that I might have done an aveira, and now I don’t deserve for you to keep Your promise! You already gave me so many brachos, I don’t deserve any more! I came to Charan with nothing, but now I have a big family and lots of wealth!
“So instead of in MY zechus, please keep Your promise to protect me and my family in the zechus of my fathers! Save me from Eisav, who wants to kill us, and keep Your promise that I will become a great nation.”
We will IY”H see the third way he prepared in tomorrow’s Chumash.
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Today’s kapitelach of Tehillim are Nun-Hey through Nun-Tes.
There are many ways to split up the Tehillim. It is split up into five seforim, like the five Chumashim. It is also divided up into seven parts, for each day of the week. When we say Chitas every day, we say it the way it is split up for each day of the month.
In times of trouble, the Rebbeim would say MORE Tehillim than usual. They would also say the Tehillim the way it is split up for the days of the week.
The Alter Rebbe and the Frierdiker Rebbe were both freed from jail on a Tuesday. Because they were in jail, they were saying the Tehillim for Tuesday the way it is split up for the week. In that section, there is Kapitel Nun-Hey, that has Padah Beshalom Nafshi (Hashem set my neshama free in peace). At the time they were let out of jail, they were saying this posuk!
The Mitteler Rebbe, whose Chag Hageulah is today, ALSO said this posuk when he was coming out of jail, even though he wasn’t set free on Tuesday. His Geulah was on Yud Kislev, and the first kapitel for Yom Yud (today) has the words Padah Beshalom Nafshi!
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TANYA
Kuntres Acharon Siman Daled
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The part of Tanya we are learning now is called Kuntres Acharon. Did you know that there is a Kuntres Acharon in the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch too? At first that Kuntres Acharon in Shulchan Aruch was put at the end, like in Tanya, but later it was included with the halachos.
In the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, he writes halachos with reasons so we can understand them. The reason for the Kuntres Acharon in Shulchan Aruch is to bring proofs from the Gemara for why the Alter Rebbe paskens the halachos the way he does.
In Tanya, the Alter Rebbe also “paskens” on how to serve Hashem, not just with our body, but with our neshama. The Kuntres Acharon in Tanya is there for the same reason as the one in Shulchan Aruch: To bring proofs from the Zohar and the writings of the Arizal for the things that are written in Tanya.
One of the things that the Alter Rebbe taught us in the first chelek of Tanya is about doing mitzvos with kavanah. Even though it is important to have the kavana, the FIRST thing we need to make sure of is that we are actually DOING the mitzvah! Having kavanah without doing the mitzvah is not enough.
That’s because the reason for the neshama coming into the world is to make a difference in this Gashmius’dike world. The neshama can make a difference by doing mitzvos using Gashmius, or learning the halachos of the Gashmius’dike mitzvos.
Here, the Alter Rebbe is explaining more about this, according to Kabbalah.
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Today is a very special Chassidishe Yom Tov! It is the Chag Hageulah of the Mitteler Rebbe!
On Chol Hamoed Sukkos in the year Tof-Kuf-Pey-Zayin, the Rebbe and the Chassidim found out that someone told not good things about the Mitteler Rebbe to the government. A few days after Simchas Torah, (the day after Shabbos Bereishis, Sunday 28 Tishrei) the police came to Lubavitch to take the Rebbe to jail.
On the way, they stopped in Dobromysl and Lyozna, where the Mitteler Rebbe said maamorim! Then they took the Mitteler Rebbe to Vitebsk, where they kept him in jail. He stayed in jail until Sunday, Parshas Vayishlach — Yud Kislev (today)!
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Today’s mitzvah is the same one as yesterday:
(Mitzvas Asei #107) When a neshama leaves a body, the body becomes Tomei. Someone who touches or is in the same house as the body gets some of this Tumah too, called Tumas Meis. Today’s mitzvah is to follow all of the halachos about this tumah!
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In today’s Rambam (Perakim Yud-Ches, Yud-Tes, and Chof), we learn more about how Tumas Meis can spread inside of a house.
One of the things the Rambam teaches is that “Derech Hatumah Latzeis, Ve’ein Darka Lehikanes” — tumah goes out of things, but doesn’t come in. Tumah can come out of even a closed container to make the whole house tamei, but it doesn’t go into a sealed container and make things inside of it tamei.
So for example, if there are dishes inside of a sealed box in a house that has Tumas Meis inside, the dishes stay tahor, even though the whole house is tomei. The tumah doesn’t go inside of the box.
But if there is Tumas Meis inside of a sealed box inside of a house, the whole house becomes tomei. The tumah that is inside of the box goes out of it.
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This perek is about a Shomer Chinam, who watches something for another person without getting paid for his work.
If you watch something for someone else, you need to be very careful with it — even more careful than if it was yours! The halacha is that if you put something that belongs to someone else in a not safe place, and it got lost and stolen — even if it wasn’t your fault! — you need to pay for it.
So for example if someone asked you to watch their pencil for a few minutes, and you just left it outside in the playground, it is your fault if it gets lost or stolen.
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After the histalkus of the Alter Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe was in Krementchug. After he became Rebbe, he decided to move to Lubavitch. It is a minhag that Chassidim give the Rebbe money, called maamad. Before the move to Lubavitch, the Chassidim gave an extra-large amount of maamad.
Instead of using it for himself, when he got to Lubavitch, the Mitteler Rebbe decided to give this money to tzedakah. He set up a group of three people to give it out to the poor. He wrote a letter to a relative to tell him how he was able to give so much money (3,000 or 4,000 rubles) to Yidden in Eretz Yisroel!
Many years later, this man’s son found the letter. He was very upset at the Mitteler Rebbe because he felt insulted about something that happened. He translated the letter to look like it was really more than 100,000 rubles! Then he showed the letter to the government. He explained to them that the Mitteler Rebbe must be planning to rebel against the government! That must be why he collected so much money. He was sending money to the Turkish government (who ruled Eretz Yisroel then). He also said that the size of the Mitteler Rebbe’s shul was like the size of the Beis Hamikdash, so it must be that he wanted to be king!
Even when they took him to jail, they treated the Mitteler Rebbe with kavod. They let him say maamorim on his way to jail. A few weeks later, they told the Mitteler Rebbe that they decided he didn’t do anything wrong, and were letting him go free — on Yud Kislev.
Similar to what we know about Yud-Tes Kislev, when the Mitteler Rebbe was in jail, it was because there was a kitrug in Shomayim against the Mitteler Rebbe’s Chassidus. When he was freed from jail, it was because in Shomayim too, it was decided that the Mitteler Rebbe’s Chassidus should be spread! That is why the day of Yud Kislev is the Mitteler Rebbe’s Chag Hageulah.
The Mitteler Rebbe lived one more year after that, and was nistalek the next year on Tes Kislev, when he was 54.
At first, the Chag Hageulah was not celebrated so much because the histalkus of the Mitteler Rebbe happened the next year. But now, we celebrate it as a big Yom Tov!
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In the times of the Beis Hamikdash, the Hakhel of all of the Yidden would happen one time during the year, on Chol Hamoed Sukkos.
Still, the Rebbe teaches us that in a year of Hakhel, the WHOLE year is all about Hakhel! In a year like this, we are given special kochos for gathering Yidden and inspiring them to be stronger in their Yiddishkeit.
In farbrengens, the Rebbe would show us how all of the things that happen in a Hakhel year remind us about Hakhel and encourage us to put more energy into it.
For example, in Parshas Vayeitzei which we just learned, we see that Yaakov Avinu built a family in Charan. Most of the Shevatim were born there, and Yaakov brought them home to his father Yitzchak. The Rebbe said that this was also a Hakhel! Each of the Shevatim were different, and all of the kinds of Yidden later came from them. So Yaakov had a gathering of all kinds of Yidden!
Yosef, who was born at the end, hints to finding even more Yidden. His name, Yosef, was given asking Hashem to add another child!
Yaakov Avinu gathered all of his children, and raised them in a way that they were all Tzadikim.
This is what Hakhel is about — gathering Yidden together and inspiring them so that they will fear Hashem and follow what the Torah teaches. If we are always thinking about and looking for Hakhel, we will be sure to use the special kochos we are given during this Hakhel year to their fullest!
See Farbrengen Vayeitzei 5748
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Tonight (starting from Maariv) we start to say Vesein Tal Umatar Livracha in davening.
We started saying Mashiv Haruach already on Sukkos. Mashiv Haruach is in the part of Shemoneh Esrei that praises Hashem, and this is praising Hashem for His koach of bringing rain. We start to say it when the rainy season starts in Eretz Yisroel, which is Sukkos time.
But we don’t start ASKING for rain right away — first we want the Yidden to have time to get home from the Beis Hamikdash. That’s why in Eretz Yisroel, we start asking for rain, with Vesein Tal U’matar, on Zayin Cheshvan, which is enough time for the farthest person to get home.
But we only ask for rain when we need it! In different places, that is at different times.
In Bavel, they didn’t need rain until later, so they didn’t start asking for it until two months after the Tishrei season started. Nowadays, the halacha is that everyone outside of Eretz Yisroel starts asking for rain at the time they did in Bavel.
The seasons, or Tekufos, are based on the solar cycle, which is 365 days and 6 hours long. Tekufas Tishrei usually starts on October 4 on the English calendar, which is also based on the solar cycle. That’s why we start saying Vesein Tal Umatar on December 4th. (See Chabad.org/2060070 to understand why it’s sometimes on the 5th.)
The mitzvah of davening is to ask for the things we need, so it is very important not to miss the things the Chachomim told us we need to ask for! Rain especially is very important, because all of our food grows only because of rain.
If the time we need to ask for rain starts, and we didn’t ask, we missed the point of davening, and we need to daven Shmoneh Esrei again!
IY”H we will learn some of the Halachos of what to do if we forgot to say Vesein Tal U’matar in tomorrow’s Shiur.
See a summary of these halachos from the Badatz of Crown Heights.
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We are not allowed to make any interruptions between the bracha of Go’al Yisroel and Shemoneh Esrei.
But what should you do when you are in shul, and the Chazan says the bracha of Go’al Yisroel? Don’t you have to answer Amen?
According to many poskim, it is not a problem to answer Amen. It is counted as part of the bracha!
Still, it is best to follow the halacha in a way that EVERYONE agrees it is not a problem. So the best thing to do is to finish off the bracha of Go’al Yisroel together with the Chazan! Since we don’t answer Amen to our own brachos, we don’t have to worry about saying Amen. This way, EVERYONE agrees that we are not making a hefsek.
See the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, siman 66 se’if 9
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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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In the Torah Ohr (the Chassidishe Parsha) for this week, we learn the deeper reason why Yaakov sent messengers to Eisav. Yaakov knew that he had done his part to get ready for the Geulah, and now he was hoping to use Eisav’s kochos to bring the Geulah right away.
But when the messengers came back and said that Eisav wanted to fight, Yaakov saw that Eisav wasn’t ready yet. It would take time until Eisav would be ready for the Geulah.
In the last sicha we were zoche to hear from the Rebbe, Parshas Vayishlach 5752, the Rebbe spoke about this maamar. The Rebbe said that now Eisav IS ready! All the avodah that Yidden have done throughout the generations, especially after Yud-Tes Kislev when Chassidus was revealed to Yidden, has finished the job! Now we are just doing the last steps so that we will be able to see the Geulah in the world!
See farbrengen Parshas Vayishlach Tof-Shin-Nun-Beis
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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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