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CHUMASH
Parshas Mikeitz - Revi'i with Rashi
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In today’s Chumash, the years of hunger start. The Shevatim come down to Mitzrayim to get food. Yosef acts mean to them to get them to do Teshuvah, and tells them to bring back Benyamin.
The seven years of hunger: Just like Yosef had said, there were 7 years with a lot of food growing. Then the seven years of hunger started. No food grew. Even though many people had saved food, their food got rotten. Only the food that Yosef stored stayed good.
When people got hungry, they came to Yosef and asked him for grain. Yosef agreed, but he made them have a Bris Milah first! (Avraham Avinu had a mitzvah to give a bris to all of his servants, and now everyone in Mitzrayim was like Yosef’s servant.)
The Mitzriyim came to Paraoh to complain that they didn’t want a bris! Paraoh asked them why they didn’t have their own food, and they told him it was all rotten. “If all of your food got rotten, it must be because of Yosef! All of HIS food stayed good. If he can do that, who knows what he can do to you! You’d better just do whatever he tells you to.” So they all did.
When the hunger got so bad that even the rich people had no food, Yosef opened all of the storehouses and sold it to the Mitzriyim. People from all over came to buy food, because there was no food anywhere! There was also no food in Canaan, Eretz Yisroel. But by a neis, Yaakov’s family still had some food to eat!
Yaakov sends the Shevatim down to Mitzrayim: Yaakov told his children: “Don’t pretend that we have enough food for the whole time — we only have a little. Don’t act differently than everyone else by not trying to do anything about it. There is no promise that Hashem will keep making nisim. Don’t take the chance that you will be hungry! Go to Mitzrayim and buy food. (In Lashon Kodesh, he said “Redu Shama” — go down there. The letters of Redu (רד״ו) add up to 210, which hints that the Yidden would be in Mitzrayim for 210 years.) He told them to each go into Mitzrayim a different way so nobody would see them all together and give them an Ayin Hara.
Yaakov didn’t send Benyamin along for the trip, because he was nervous — after all, Rochel passed away when they were going somewhere, and Yosef also disappeared when going somewhere. He didn’t want Benyamin to go somewhere because it might be dangerous.
Yosef’s dream starts to come true: So the rest of the Shevatim all went down to Mitzrayim. They bowed in front of Yosef, who was selling the food. Yosef knew it was his brothers, but he didn’t tell them who he was. (He wanted to first make sure they did teshuvah for selling him.) Yosef pretended he didn’t know them, and mostly talked in a strict way.
Yosef pretended he didn’t understand Lashon Kodesh, so he had his 7-year old son Menasheh translate what they were saying. He asked them, “Where are you from?”
They answered, “From Canaan, to buy food.”
The Shevatim didn’t recognize Yosef, because he looked so different, now that he was older and had a beard. Even though he could have done very mean things to them, because they sold him, Yosef treated them like brothers and had rachmonus on them. Yosef remembered his dream, where the wheat bowed down to him, and saw how now his brothers are bowing to him when they’re buying wheat! He realized that his dreams were coming true, and now he needed Benyamin to come to Mitzrayim too so the dream could finish coming true. So he decided to make them bring Benyamin.
Yosef makes sure that the Shevatim did teshuvah: “You are spies!” Yosef told the brothers.
“No, we’re just coming to buy food! We’re all brothers, and we aren’t spies!”
“But if you’re brothers, why did you all come to Mitzrayim in different ways? You must be liars!”
They answered, “No, we are 12 brothers. The youngest is at home, and one of the brothers is missing, and we all went a different way so we could look for him in different places.”
Yosef asked, “Would you pay a lot of money if you found your brother and they didn’t want to let him go?”
“Of course!” said the Shevatim.
“And what if they don’t want to let him go, even if you give them a lot of money?”
“Then we’ll have to make a war with them so we can bring our brother home.”
Yosef tries to get them to bring Binyamin: Yosef said: “See! I told you that you are spies! You want to make a war with people! I see from my magic cup what you did to the people of Shechem, and you want to do the same thing to Mitzrayim too!
“I will give you a chance to prove you’re telling the truth: One of you should go get your youngest brother, and the rest of you will stay here in jail. If you don’t bring him, I’ll know you’re liars and I swear by Paraoh’s life that you are spies!” (Whenever he had to swear something that wasn’t 100% true, he promised on Paraoh’s name.)
Yosef put them all in jail for three days to give them a chance to decide.
On the third day, he said “I decided to make it easier for you. Do what I tell you and you can live. You can trust me, I am a person who believes in Hashem.”
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Today’s Tehillim is kapitelach Kuf-Chof to Kuf-Lamed-Daled.
In Tehillim, Dovid Hamelech gives us words to tell Hashem how we feel. It is like davening, where the Anshei Kneses Hagedolah gave us words to help us daven to Hashem.
Kapitel Kuf-Chof Dovid Hamelech speaks to Hashem on behalf of every Yid. In the end of the kapitel, he talks about the Golus that Yidden have among the nations. He says, “Ani Shalom, Vechi Adaber, Heima Lamilchama!” “I want shalom, but when I speak about that, it just makes the Goyim want to make Milchama, war!”
This also has a Ruchniyus meaning: Our neshama doesn’t want to be tested by Hashem, to see if it will look for taavos instead of doing what Hashem wants. It just wants to think about Torah and mitzvos! That’s why there is a halacha that we aren’t allowed to go in a place where there is something not tznius, or a road where there is Avodah Zarah. We don’t want to go looking for a war with the Yetzer Hara! That’s what it means, “Ani Shalom” — “I want peace.”
But Hashem makes the Yetzer Hara, and all of the not-good things in the world, to come bother us anyway, like in a real war! That’s what the posuk is saying — “Heima Lamilchama,” “they want war.”
Dovid Hamelech starts this kapitel with the word “Shir,” meaning a song. A person only sings when they are happy! Even though the Yetzer Hara is bothering us, Dovid Hamelech is still happy, because he knows Hashem is only testing us. When the neshama shows that it is strong and won’t let itself be convinced by the Yetzer Hara and the taavos of the world, the deepest kochos of the neshama will come out.
That gives a Yid a WONDERFUL reason to be happy and sing to Hashem!
See rally to Tzivos Hashem, Chanukah 5747
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Daled
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In today’s Tanya, we learn that the “Levushim” (“clothes”) of the neshama connect all of the other parts of the neshama to Hashem!
We learned that before the neshama comes into the body it needs to make a promise that it will be a tzadik and it won’t be a rasha. We know that it isn’t easy to keep this promise that we all made, because the first nefesh that comes into our body, the Nefesh Habehamis, is only interested in Gashmius and things it enjoys.
But Hashem also gives each person a neshama which will help us keep our promise. Even though the neshama is hidden, Hashem gives the neshama ways to come out of hiding in the body. First we learned that we can do this through connecting to a tzadik whose neshama doesn’t hide as much (hiskashrus). Then the Alter Rebbe taught us that by learning about the greatness of Hashem with the Chochma, Bina, and Daas of the Neshama (Sechel), it wakes up the feelings of the neshama (Midos) to want to be close to Hashem. We do this by learning Chassidus and davening B’Avodah.
Now in Perek Daled, the Alter Rebbe tells us about something that is even MORE powerful! Waking up the neshama’s feelings helps us WANT to be close to Hashem, but there is a way for the neshama to ACTUALLY be close to Hashem! This is through Torah and mitzvos, which are called the Levushim of the neshama.
What are the Levushim of the neshama?
1) Maaseh — Doing all the mitzvos of the Torah that we are able to
2) Dibur — Learning with our speech all 613 mitzvos and their halachos (like we do in Sefer Hamitzvos and Rambam!)
3) Machshavah — Thinking as much Torah as we can, in all of the different parts of Torah
The Alter Rebbe tells us that the neshama has 613 parts. By doing the 613 mitzvos in Machshava, Dibur and Maaseh the best we can, we connect these 613 parts to Hashem!
The Levushim also help us connect the neshama-kochos of Sechel and Midos with Hashem!
Thinking Torah in Machshavah connects our Chochma, Bina and Daas (the Sechel of our neshama) to Hashem.
And when we do mitzvos in Dibur and Maaseh, we connect our Midos, the feelings we woke up of wanting to be close to Hashem, with actually being close to Hashem!
That’s how learning Torah and doing mitzvos connects every part of the neshama to Hashem!
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In today’s Hayom Yom, we will learn about the Alter Rebbe’s second arrest and Geulah.
We just celebrated Yud-Tes Kislev, when the Alter Rebbe was freed from prison.
A little less than two years later, people again told the government lies, and they took the Alter Rebbe to prison.
This time, the Alter Rebbe was held in a room in a government building, not in a jail cell. This building was called “Tainy Soviet.”
But the lies that were told were much worse! Instead of telling the government that the Alter Rebbe was a dangerous person to them, they said that CHASSIDUS was dangerous! They wanted the government to make learning Chassidus against the law!
Today, the 3rd licht of Chanukah, the Alter Rebbe came out of jail for the second time, in 5561!
(Besides for the great simcha it brought to the Alter Rebbe and to Chassidim when this happened, it made Chassidus much stronger than ever before!)
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Today we learn the same mitzvah as yesterday (Mitzvas Asei #104) — that a man who has a certain kind of tumah that comes from the body which is called Zav, becomes Tomei. This mitzvah includes all of the dinim of how he becomes a Zav and also how he makes others tomei.
We also learn a new mitzvah (Mitzvas Asei #96) — about the kind of tumah that comes from the body of a neveila — a dead animal.
The Rambam also tells us a general rule about all of the mitzvos we learn about someone becoming tomei: It’s not a mitzvah that we need to become tomei, or to be careful not to become tomei. The mitzvah is to follow the dinim of how a person becomes tomei, and to follow the rules which are given for a tomei person, like not going into the Beis Hamikdash or eating from korbanos.
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RAMBAM
Hilchos Metamei Mishkav U'Moshav - Shaar Avos HaTumos
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In today’s Rambam, we learn the last Perek about people with a body kind of tumah, and start learning about other kinds of tumah.
Perek Yud-Gimmel: There are some people that are careful about the halachos of tumah and tahara. Such a person is called a Chaver. Other people are called Amei Ha’aretz. If someone’s workers are Amei Ha’aretz, they need to be watched carefully to make sure their products stay tahor. If a chaver wasn’t paying attention to his possessions, they may become tamei.
Perek Alef: The first perek of Hilchos Shaar Avos HaTumah teaches us about today’s second mitzvah: that a neveilah, the dead body of an animal, or part of one, makes other things Tomei. If a kosher animal was shechted, it does not make other things tomei.
Perek Beis: We learn more dinim about the tumah of neveilah. One of the things we learn about in this perek is when a shechitah which was not done properly makes the animal a neveilah.
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We learn about paying back a loan. If the person who borrowed money didn’t pay it back on time, he may be allowed to sell the mashkon.
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After we light the menorah, we should listen to the things it teaches us. One very important thing our Menorah teaches us is about the shlichus each of us have to bring another Yid closer to Yiddishkeit.
When we look at the menorah after we light it, we will see the flames dancing happily. Really, inside of each of us we also have a flame! The Torah tells us that “Ner Hashem Nishmas Adam” — our neshama is like a flame of Hashem!
Our neshama-flame shines like our menorah when we keep it bright with Ner Mitzvah VeTorah Ohr — with the light of Torah and mitzvos.
But it’s not enough to just have our own flame shining bright. It is part of our shlichus to make sure that ANOTHER Yid’s neshama can also shine! When we bring another Yid closer to Yiddishkeit, and help him do another mitzvah, we are helping his neshama-flame to burn brightly like the candles in our menorah.
But, the Rebbe teaches us, that’s not the hardest part.
If you have your own menorah, or watched your Tatty set up his, you know that it is not so hard to actually LIGHT the Menorah. The harder part is to set it up, putting it in the right place, and filling it with the wicks and the oil and the shamosh, so it will be ready to light on Chanukah.
Before we help another Yid light up his neshama-flame, we also first have to do a harder job — to help make sure his “menorah” is ready to light.
How do we do that?
We need to go out and find the Yid. Maybe he lives on our block, or works in our school, or is even a relative. We need to go up to him and wish him a “Good morning!” or a “Good Shabbos!” or a “Happy Chanukah!” We can give him a smile, or a piece of chocolate Chanukah gelt!
Then, once made the connection, his “menorah” will be ready to light. He will start to think about his own Yiddishkeit! We can help him do a mitzvah, teach him some Torah, or he can even start doing a mitzvah on his own. This way, his neshama-flame will burn strong and bright, and light up the world!
See sicha of Parshas Mikeitz, Zos Chanukah 5747, Likutei Sichos chelek Chof-Hey, p. 433
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Part of the mitzvah of Chanukah is to praise and thank Hashem, Hallel and Hoda’ah. We praise Hashem by saying the whole Hallel every day of Chanukah, and we thank Hashem by adding Ve’al Hanisim in Shemoneh Esrei.
In Hallel, we praise Hashem that He runs the world exactly the way He wants, even when it is “against the rules!” The world usually works with the rules of teva (nature), but Hashem doesn’t HAVE TO use them! When Hashem wants to, “Hahofchi Hatzur Agam Mayim” — He can change a rock into a fountain of water! We say, “Veilokeinu Bashamayim Kol Asher Chofeitz Asa” — Hashem runs the world however He wants to, no matter how nature says it is supposed to work.
The neis of Chanukah happened just like that! Hashem didn’t listen to any of the rules of teva. Hashem made the small Yiddishe army win over the gigantic Greek army, and made a small bottle of oil burn for 8 days!
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Some people have a minhag to eat foods made out of milk or cheese on Chanukah. We do this to remember the neis that happened with Yehudis and the cheese:
Yehudis, the daughter of Yochanan Kohen Gadol, was very brave. She thought of a plan to save the Yidden of her city. She went out to the Greek general, bringing him a present of very salty cheese. He was very happy, and let her feed him a lot of it. Then the general was very thirsty, so Yehudis gave him lots of strong wine. The wine made him so drunk, he fell asleep! Yehudis pulled out his sword and chopped off his head.
When the soldiers found out that their general was dead, they were so scared that they all ran away! The Yidden were saved.
To remember this neis, we also eat milchig foods on Chanukah.
See Shevach Hamoadim, Kitzur Hilchos Chanukah
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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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When we are excited about something, everything we see reminds us of what we are excited about.
Yidden are all excited about Moshiach. Especially now, at the very end of Golus, we are expecting Moshiach to come any minute! So it makes sense that whatever we look at, we think about how it is also connected to Moshiach!
How does Chanukah remind you about Moshiach? How does Parshas Mikeitz remind you about Moshiach?
The name of the parsha Mikeitz already reminds of the Geulah! Keitz means “the end.” Many times, when we talk about the Geulah, we say we are waiting for the Keitz, the end of Golus!
Chanukah reminds us of how the Chashmonaim lit the menorah again in the Beis Hamikdash after a long time when they couldn’t. Very soon we will IY”H be able to light the menorah again too, in the Beis Hamikdash Hashlishi!
See Sefer Hasichos 5751, vol. 1, p. 203
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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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