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CHUMASH
Parshas Vayeishev - Shvi'i with Rashi
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Paraoh’s butler and baker have dreams while they are in jail, and Yosef explains them.
Yosef was still sitting in jail. He helped take care of the other prisoners. Hashem didn’t want everyone to talk in a not-nice way about Yosef and what they thought he tried to do to Potifar’s wife, so He gave them something else to talk about.
Paraoh’s butler (who brings the king drinks) and his baker did something to make Paraoh upset: Paraoh found a fly in his wine, and a rock in his bread! Paraoh was very angry and threw them both in jail — the same jail where Yosef was. They stayed in jail for a year, and Yosef was in charge of them.
One night, the butler and the baker had dreams. The butler had a strange dream he didn’t understand, and ALSO dreamed the baker’s dream and what it meant. The baker had a strange dream HE didn’t understand, and also dreamed the butler’s dream and what it meant.
When Yosef came in the morning to check on them, he saw that they were upset about something. So he asked them why. They said that they had strange dreams, but there was no one to tell them what the dream means!
Yosef said, “Hashem knows what dreams mean! Tell me what you dreamed.”
The butler told his dream: “I dreamed that there was a vine with 3 branches growing on it. When the grapes grew, I squeezed them into Paraoh’s cup that I was holding, and then I gave the cup to Paraoh.”
Yosef explained, “In three days, Paraoh will take you out of jail and have you come back and be his butler. When this happens, please tell Paraoh about me so I can come out of jail! I was kidnapped and sold, and I didn’t deserve to go to jail.” (For a tzadik like Yosef, asking the butler to save him was not showing enough bitachon.)
Since the baker had dreamed the butler’s dream AND what it meant, he knew that Yosef was giving the right explanation. He decided to ask Yosef to explain his own dream. So he said: “In my dream, there were three baskets on my head. In the top basket there was bread for Paraoh, and birds were eating it.”
Yosef explained what it meant: “In three days Paraoh will kill you and not bury you, but hang up your body for the birds to eat.”
On the third day, Paraoh’s birthday, Paraoh made a big party. He thought about who could serve him, and remembered the butler and the baker. He took the butler back to work, and killed the baker like Yosef said.
Hashem made Yosef stay in jail for two more years after Paraoh’s party. This time would help him do teshuva properly for not having enough bitachon in Hashem.
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Today’s shiur Tehillim is kapitelach Kuf-Ches through Kuf-Yud-Beis.
In Kapitel Kuf-Tes, Dovid Hamelech says “Ki Oni Ve’evyon Anochi, VeLibi Cholal BeKirbi.” “I am like a poor person, and my heart is empty inside of me.”
What does Dovid Hamelech mean? What is an empty heart?
The Gemara explains that Dovid Hamelech was saying that half of his heart is empty — the part where the Yetzer Hara usually is!
Dovid Hamelech had no Yetzer Hara — he “killed” it by fasting! (Hashem made Dovid Hamelech with a Yetzer Hara that COULD be killed, but not everybody’s can be.)
In today’s Tanya, the Alter Rebbe teaches that that’s what a Tzadik means — someone who doesn’t have a Yetzer Hara. Most of us DO have a Yetzer Tov AND a Yetzer Hara, and we bring a special kind of nachas to Hashem by fighting all the time for our Yetzer Tov to win.
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Alef
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The Alter Rebbe started the Tanya with the promise the neshama is given, to be a tzadik and not to be a rasha. The Alter Rebbe is starting to explain to us what these words “tzadik” and “rasha” mean, and also the third type of person, the “beinoni”.
Today the Alter Rebbe tells us that even though the Gemara sometimes uses an expression “Tzadik” to describe someone who has more mitzvos than aveiros but a REAL tzadik is someone who has no Yetzer Hara at all! The Midrash says that Hashem saw that there are very few Yidden like that, so He spread them out so that there would be tzadikim in every generation.
So it is clear from what we learned today and yesterday that a real tzadik has no Yetzer Hara, and a real beinoni has a Yetzer Hara but still has no aveiros!
In the following perakim the Alter Rebbe will explain to us what exactly a real tzadik, beinoni, and rasha are. Once we know who we are, it is much easier to understand how we need to behave and how to reach the goal of living the way a good Jew should!
The Alter Rebbe starts to explain this by telling us the words of the Arizal, that every Yid starts off his or her life with two nefashos. Today we learn about the first one. This first nefesh, the nefesh of kelipah, is more active from birth. It’s where we get all of our midos which are selfish, like getting angry or being lazy.
This nefesh has four ingredients. (The truth is, the Rambam says, everything in the world has these four ingredients, even if we can’t see them!) They are:
1) Aish — Fire
2) Mayim — Water
3) Ruach — Air
4) Afar — Earth
In each thing in the world, some have more of one ingredient, and some have more of another ingredient. Like a fire has mostly fire, but there’s also the other ingredients inside. (After something gets burned, you can see that it makes ashes, which is like earth.)
A nefesh also has these four ingredients in a ruchniyus’dike way — some people have more of one ingredient or another. These ingredients make us feel certain ways. Here are some examples:
Aish — Fire: This ingredient can make a person angry, or be a big shot! Like fire is always jumping up!
Mayim — Water: Water makes all the yummy things grow — this ingredient makes us always want yummy or fun things (even if they’re not so good for our Avodas Hashem)
Ruach — Air: Just like air can blow up a balloon but really it’s empty, this ingredient can make a person talk narishkeit.
Afar — Earth: Earth is heavy. This can make a person lazy, or sad.
A Yid also has a special gift from Hashem that this nefesh makes him able to do things just for someone else. The nature of this nefesh makes him able to help another person without thinking about what he will get for it, or how good it will make him feel. (Goyim who keep the Sheva Mitzvos Bnei Noach also have this gift.)
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The Rebbe Maharash said, “Three days before Shabbos we already start getting ready for Shabbos.
“The Zohar says that Shabbos gives brachos to all the days of the week — the three days before (Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday), and the three days afterwards (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday).
“So we start preparing for the next Shabbos on Wednesday! In the Shir Shel Yom for Wednesday, we say the first three pesukim of Lechu Neranena, the beginning of davening on Friday night!” This reminds us that Shabbos is coming.
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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Asei #99) is about the Tumah of Niddah, a kind of tumah a woman can get from her body. We need to follow all of the halachos about when a person gets this kind of tumah, and how it can be passed on.
Even though this kind of tumah, and some of the other kinds of tumah we will learn about, are kept in certain ways nowadays, in these halachos we are learning about how someone with these kinds of tumah makes other people or things tomei. These halachos are only kept when there is a Beis Hamikdash.
This mitzvah includes the halachos of Tumas Niddah which are written in Parshas Tazria.
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RAMBAM
Hilchos Metamei Mishkav U'Moshav
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In today’s Rambam, we start learning a new set of halachos — about people who can make something tomei in a different way than the kinds of tumah we learned before, like Tumas Meis or Tumas Tzoraas. These people have a certain kind of tumah that come from their body.
Perek Alef: The Rambam teaches us what can make a person tomei enough to make other things Tomei by sitting down or lying down on them. (Those things will become an Av HaTumah — that’s is the strongest kind of tumah, which can make other things Tomei more easily.)
Perek Beis: Now we explain the halachos about things that come from a person with these kinds of Tumah — like their blood or the spit in their mouth. This can be also counted as an Av HaTumah.
Perek Gimmel: This perek teaches us when another person can get this kind of Tumah too, from them. We also learn about when a woman finds out that she was Tomei — sometimes we say that she was probably Tomei the day before too, and just didn’t find out until now. So everything she touched since yesterday is Tomei too!
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We learn when someone is allowed to buy something in advance. Many times it is asur to sell something that didn’t grow yet, because we might end up charging more than it’s really worth, and we don’t know how much it will be worth yet, until we see how much people are paying in the marketplace. The Rambam tells us the halachos about when we can buy something in advance without being a problem of ribbis.
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When Yosef Hatzaddik was in jail, he met the baker and the butler who were also in jail. The Torah tells us all about these people, and how upset they were about their dreams.
The Torah is so careful about every letter and every word! Why do we need to know about every detail of the baker and butler’s dreams?
This teaches us a very important hora’ah about how we should act with other people.
Being in jail is not a very happy thing. To be in jail in a faraway country, with nobody to visit him, for something he didn’t even do, must have been very painful for Yosef.
But even though he was suffering himself, he didn’t only think about what was bothering him. Instead, Yosef was always looking to help other people! He noticed when the butler and the baker were sadder than usual, and right away asked them what was bothering them. Then, in the end, this helped bring him out of jail too!
We can learn from here that even when we have our own problems, we shouldn’t just think about ourselves. We should still be looking to see how we can help another person! And just like with Yosef Hatzaddik, at the end we will see that we were helping ourselves too!
See sicha of Mikeitz 5734; Hamaor Shebetorah p. 522
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The Chachomim say that a person who is davening has to have his heart above and his eyes below! (“Hamispalel Tzorich Sheyihiyeh Libo Lemaala Ve’einav Lematah.”)
The Alter Rebbe explains that this means that even when someone feels close and connected to Hashem, he still needs to remember the way he is during the rest of the day.
The Rebbe teaches us that practically this means that a person can’t walk away from davening only feeling inspired and Ruchniyus’dik. We ALSO need to use the time of davening to make general hachlatos for the day about how we should act in our “regular” work, like eating and exercise and playing and working.
Then, later in the day, we can think about what we’re doing, and if we’re acting the way we decided we would during davening.
Sichas Tes-Vov Shevat, 5739
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Let’s say it’s Shabbos morning. If your brother is eating a leftover piece of deli roll, and you’re having cereal and milk, you need to put something called a “Heker” on the table. The heker will remind you not to sneak a taste of your brother’s food!
One heker that Shulchan Aruch teaches us is for one person to eat on a tablecloth, and the other person not to. Another heker can be putting something between you that you usually don’t put on the table, like maybe your Chitas!
See Kitzur Shulchan Aruch siman Mem-Vov
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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 days before Shabbos are a preparation for Shabbos, and the Zohar says that Shabbos gives a bracha to all of the days of the week.
When we prepare so we can celebrate Shabbos properly, then the kedusha of Shabbos helps us in our avodah the rest of the week: We’ll remember what the gashmius is really there for — to help us act the way Hashem wants! We’ll be able to find Hashem in all of the gashmius things!
Golus is like the days of the week, and Geulah is like Shabbos. The times of the Geulah will be like one long Shabbos, and every Shabbos is a taste of the Geulah! When we celebrate Shabbos properly, we can also take the chayus of the Geulah and bring it with us into the rest of the week!
From Sefer Hasichos 5749 and 5751
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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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