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CHUMASH
Parshas Vayigash - Rishon with Rashi
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We are learning about how Yaakov and his family ended up coming down to Mitzrayim. We learned about the second time the Shevatim came to get food, and how the ruler of Mitzrayim (who was really Yosef) wanted to keep Benyamin. In today’s Chumash, Yehuda is arguing with Yosef not to keep Benyamin. Today we see the first part of his argument, and we will see the rest in tomorrow’s Chumash.
Yehudah came to Yosef and said: “Please let me say something to you that might make you change your mind! Please don’t be angry, even though I’m going to say harsh words.
“Do you know that my great-grandmother, Sarah, was captured by a Paraoh before? He got punished just from that! Do you think Hashem won’t punish you for keeping Benyamin?”
Yehudah then reminded Yosef of how Benyamin came down to Mitzrayim: Yosef had told them that they need to bring Benyamin down to Mitzrayim so he can see him.
Yehudah continued, “It looks like you were never telling us the truth! You said that you just wanted to see Benyamin, and now I see you want to keep him!”
Yehudah described how Yaakov had been afraid to let Benyamin go. Yaakov had warned the Shevatim of the terrible pain it would cause him if anything happens to Benyamin!
IY”H in tomorrow’s Chumash, we will see the rest of Yehuda’s words.
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Today’s kapitelach of Tehillim are Alef through Tes.
Today, we are starting Sefer Tehillim again from the very beginning! IY”H we will finish the whole thing before Rosh Chodesh Shevat!
Kapitel Alef talks about how a person should behave in order to have hatzlacha from Hashem. By making sure that we are involved in Torah and not narishkeit, we get lots of brachos!
In this kapitel, we say a very interesting posuk: “Ki Im BeSoras Hashem Cheftzo, UveSoraso Yehege Yomam VaLayla.” “HASHEM’S Torah is all he wants, and he is busy with HIS Torah all day and night.”
How come it first says HASHEM’S Torah, and then it says HIS Torah (that it belongs to the person learning it)?
We are learning now in Tanya that when we are learning a part of Torah for the first time, it feels like it’s something that’s not part of us. But when we learn it again and again, we start to understand it better. When we finally “get it,” the Torah becomes part of us, like food that we eat, which becomes a part of us and gives us chayus.
So at first it feels like we’re learning Hashem’s Torah (Besoras Hashem Cheftzo), but once we understand it, it feels like OUR Torah (Uvesoraso Yehege)!
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Hey
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We learned in yesterday’s Tanya that when we learn Torah, we become one with Hashem in a way of Yichud Nifla, an incredible connection!
In order to have this Yichud Nifla, we need to learn Torah in a certain way: We need to understand it so well that it becomes the way we think! Then, the Torah becomes completely one with us.
A mashal for this is the way food works: When we eat something, the koach from the food becomes a part of us and gives us energy and life!
The same thing is with Torah! When we learn it well in a way that we really understand it, it becomes food for the neshama and gives it life from the Ohr Ein Sof, the light of Hashem which is in the Torah!
Not only is Torah with us in Olam Hazeh, it comes with us in Olam Haba also! The Torah that we learn here becomes the “food” for the neshama in Gan Eden. The mitzvos, though, become the “clothing” for the neshama in Gan Eden.
The Alter Rebbe explains that Torah has BOTH maalos — the maalah of Torah AND the maalah of mitzvos! That’s why we say, at the end of Eilu Devarim, “Vesalmud Torah Keneged Kulam.” “Learning Torah is equal to all of the mitzvos!” Torah learned in this way is “food” AND “clothing” for the neshama in Gan Eden!
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In today’s Hayom Yom, the first Rosh Chodesh in the sefer Hayom Yom, Rebbe tells us a few hanhagos we do in davening on Rosh Chodesh.
1) When we daven in Shul, on a day when we don’t say the whole Hallel, only the chazan says the bracha. (A day like this is Rosh Chodesh, which is today — except that today we DO say the whole Hallel because it’s also Chanukah!)
It is our minhag that if we daven without a minyan, we DO say the brachos at the beginning and the end of Hallel, even if we aren’t saying the whole Hallel.
(In a farbrengen, the Rebbe told us that the minhag of chassidim is that even with a minyan, we all make a bracha, whether we are saying the whole Hallel or not! See Sichos Kodesh 5741, vol. 4, p. 322)
2) We also don’t say the word “Al” in the last paragraph that starts Yehalelucha. (If you look in your siddur, you’ll see it’s in parentheses.)
3) We don’t wear Tefillin during Musaf. So we put them on and take them off before Davening Musaf (both Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam). In a different HaYom Yom, the Rebbe tells us that there are certain things we are supposed to learn while wearing Tefillin. Even though we take off the Tefillin on Rosh Chodesh before Musaf, we still learn those things AFTER davening, even without wearing the Tefillin.
(The reason why we don’t wear Tefillin during Musaf is because in Musaf, we say “Keser Yitnu Lecha Malochim,” that the malochim give Hashem a crown. It is not appropriate for us to be wearing OUR crown of Tefillin when we say this.)
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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Asei #105) is about another kind of tumah, called Tumas Shichvas Zera, a kind of liquid that makes things tomei. We need to follow the halachos about how someone becomes tomei from Zera, and how to become tahor.
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RAMBAM
Hilchos Shaar Avos HaTumos
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more about Tumah and Tahara.
Perek Yud-Beis explains how food that is Kodesh (like meat from korbanos) is much stricter with its halachos of Tumah and Tahara than Terumah is. There are eleven ways that kodesh is more strict than Terumah. Only one of these has a hint to it from the Torah, and it is found in the pesukim of the Nasi that we will say in Chodesh Nisan!
Perek Yud-Gimmel speaks about different gezeiros which the Chachomim made about tumah. One place where the Chachomim did NOT make a gezeira is if someone finds a Shechitah knife in Yerushalayim on Erev Pesach — we say that you can use it to shecht a korban, and we are not afraid that it might be tomei!
In Perek Yud-Daled the Rambam starts to teach us about the times when the Chachomim say that a case of a sofek (doubt) is considered tahor. Today we learn the first four of 12, and IY”H we will learn the rest in the first perek of tomorrow’s Rambam.
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The Rambam teaches us halachos about what happens if someone passes away, and his children find a note saying that someone owed him money. If the other person says he paid already, he has to take a shevuah (a very strong Torah promise) that he is telling the truth.
One interesting halacha is that if someone has a shtar written in Australia, and he brings the shtar to get paid back in America, he needs to pay back Australian dollars and not American dollars. But if it doesn’t say where it is written, and the person says it is for Australian dollars, he needs to make a shevuah that the shtar was really written there.
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Tonight and tomorrow is Zos Chanukah!
There is a sefer called the Shaloh written by Yeshaya Halevi Horowitz. He writes that if a person isn’t able to learn for whatever reason, there is a shortcut he can use! He can say the names of the Chumashim, Parshiyos, and Mesechtas, then it will be considered as if he is learning them!
There are many maamorim from the Rebbeim about Chanukah and even special maamorim for the last day of Chanukah, called Zos Chanukah. Even if we don’t have enough time to learn the maamorim themselves, we can at least know about them and say the names of the maamorim, and that is also something good!
There is a maamar from the Alter Rebbe that speaks about how special the last day of Chanukah is. It starts with the words “Havaya Li BeOzrai VaAni Ereh BeSonai,” “Hashem helps me and I will see that my enemies will go away.” The Tzemach Tzedek also talks about the last day of Chanukah in a maamar that starts with the words “Boruch She’Asa Nissim.”
There is also a maamar from the Rebbe on Zos Chanukah, 5738 (which was a Seudas Hoda’ah for the neis of Rosh Chodesh Kislev) which starts with the words, “Mitzvasa MiSheTishkeh HaChama.”
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Modeh Ani are the words we use to start each day, thanking Hashem for giving us back our neshama.
But it’s not the way Yidden ALWAYS used to start their day!
In the Gemara, it says that right after waking up, we should say Elokai Neshama to thank Hashem for giving back our neshama!
The Talmidei Rabbeinu Yonah explained that in the times of the Gemara, Yidden were holier. They didn’t wake up with tumah like we do, and were able to thank Hashem with a bracha and say Hashem’s name right away in the morning.
The first sefer where we see Modeh Ani written is the sefer Seder Hayom, written by R’ Moshe ben Machir of Tzfas. He lived at the same time as the Arizal! In his sefer, he says that, first thing in the morning, we thank Hashem with the short tefillah of Modeh Ani, which doesn’t have Hashem’s name in it.
After we wash Negel Vasser and start getting ready to daven, we can say Hashem’s name. We thank Hashem again with the longer bracha of Elokai Neshama, which has Hashem’s name in it.
See Kuntres Inyana Shel Toras Hachassidus os yud
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Today is Rosh Chodesh!
There is an old minhag that on every Rosh Chodesh, we learn one posuk with Rashi (and other explanations) from your kapitel Tehillim. If your kapitel has less than 12 pesukim (or less than 13 in a leap year), you can learn the same pesukim over again. If your kapitel is long, learn a few pesukim every Rosh Chodesh.
Here is the order of davening on Rosh Chodesh during Chanukah:
1) In Shemoneh Esrei, don’t forget Yaaleh Veyavo and Ve’al Hanisim.
2) Right after Shemoneh Esrei, say WHOLE Hallel, with V’Avraham Zakein.
3) Go back and say Shir Shel Yom, Hoshieinu, and Borchi Nafshi.
4) When davening with a minyan, we take out TWO Sifrei Torah and lein for Rosh Chodesh, and then for Chanukah.
5) Say Ashrei and U’va LeTzion.
6) Daven Musaf for Rosh Chodesh, and don’t forget Ve’al Hanisim!
7) Go back and say Kavei, Ein Keilokeinu, Aleinu, etc.
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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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Tomorrow is the last day of Chanukah, the eighth day, called Zos Chanukah.
Chassidus explains that the number eight is a very special number. Hashem created the world in seven days, so the number seven means the regular way the world works. But eight means HIGHER than that!
When Moshiach comes, there will be a lot of things with the number eight. One of them is that Dovid Hamelech’s harp which used to have seven strings will now have eight strings, to play a special Moshiach song! This will show that the time of Moshiach is completely different than the way the world is today.
On the eighth day of Chanukah we are reminded of the special time we are in now — right before Moshiach comes!
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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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