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CHUMASH
Parshas Bo - Shlishi with Rashi
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As part of their shlichus to take the Yidden out of Mitzrayim, Moshe and Aharon have already brought many of the makos.
Now Paraoh called for Moshe Rabbeinu and said, “Okay, you can go serve Hashem, and even bring your children. Just leave your animals here to prove you’re coming back.”
Moshe said, “We need all of our animals for korbanos. We’ll even need some of YOUR animals! Since we won’t know what Hashem will want us to bring for korbanos, maybe our own won’t be enough.”
Hashem made it hard for Paraoh to do teshuvah again, and Paraoh said, “No way! Go away from here! I don’t want to see you ever again!”
Moshe answered, “Yes indeed — I will not again come to see your face.”
10: Makas Bechoros (death of the firstborn)
While they were still in front of Paraoh, Hashem told Moshe a nevuah about the last makah which would be sent: Every firstborn would be killed. Then Paraoh will finally send the Yidden out of Mitzrayim!
The Yidden should ask the Mitzriyim to give them gold and silver, so they will go out rich, like Hashem promised Avraham.
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Today’s kapitelach of Tehillim are Yud through Yud-Zayin.
In one of the pesukim in today’s Tehillim, Dovid Hamelech says, “Shivisi Hashem Lenegdi Somid” — “I always place Hashem before me.”
In the first se’if of Shulchan Aruch, the Ramoh brings this posuk. He explains that this is a “Klal Gadol BaTorah,” a basic inyan in Torah. A Yid should always remember that Hashem is in front of him, which will help him have Yiras Shomayim and act the way Hashem wants him to!
The Shulchan Aruch helps us to do that, by showing us how Hashem wants us to act.
What is the Shulchan Aruch and who is the Ramoh that brings this posuk?
The Shulchan Aruch is a sefer that was written to make it clear for a Yid to know the halachos of how to live. That’s why it is called “Shulchan Aruch,” which means a set table. When the table is set, you just need to come and sit down, because everything is ready! In the Shulchan Aruch too, R’ Yosef Caro (also known as the Mechaber which means that put together this sefer) set out all of the halachos in a clear way, so that Yidden would not be confused what they should do.
But the Mechaber was a Sefardi, and there are some differences in halacha for Ashkenazim. There are also many minhagim kept by Ashkenazi Yidden, and some of them became halacha.
R’ Moshe Isserlis, known as the Ramoh, lived in Krakow, Poland. He saw that the Shulchan Aruch was not enough on its own for Ashkenazi Yidden. So he wrote an addition to the Shulchan Aruch, which was called “Mapas Hashulchan,” “the tablecloth.” This showed Yidden what to do whenever there was a difference in halacha between Ashnekazim and Sefardim. It made it possible for every Yid to follow the Shulchan Aruch, together with their minhagim! The Shulchan Aruch together with the Ramoh brought tremendous achdus among Yidden.
In the first se’if of Shulchan Aruch, we learn that “Shivisi Hashem Lenegdi Somid,” a posuk from today’s Tehillim, is a Klal Gadol BaTorah..
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Yud-Tes
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In today’s Tanya, we are learning more about the inyan of the Ahava Mesuteres, the “hidden” love for Hashem that every single Yid has, which is passed down to us from the Avos.
This Ahava Mesuteres is part of our neshama. The posuk says about the neshama of at Yid that “Ner Hashem Nishmas Adam” — the neshama is like a candle of Hashem.
The neshama is like the flame on a candle. You can see that a flame ALWAYS wants to go up. It looks like it wants to jump off the candle and fly up to Shomayim! Of course, if the flame could let go, it wouldn’t be able to burn anymore down here, and Shomayim is the source of the light, and it wouldn’t be noticed there. But still, that’s what the fire wants!
A Yid’s neshama is like that, too. Our neshama always wants to go up to Hashem, even though next to Hashem, the neshama would not be noticed as anything special! Even though it doesn’t make sense that the neshama would want to not be noticed anymore, this is still the nature of the neshama, what the neshama always wants.
This is connected with what we learned in yesterday’s Tanya, that the hidden love of the neshama (Ahava Mesuteres) comes from Chochma part of the Neshama. In the Chochma of the neshama, Hashem is the most revealed. That’s why it gives us this natural desire to connect to Hashem, even if it will mean that the neshama will not be noticed as anything special on its own.
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In today’s Hayom Yom, we learn about the maamar “Der Frumer Va’eira.”
The Alter Rebbe used to say a certain maamar every three years, on Parshas Va’eira. Each time, it was said almost exactly the same. The Chassidim would call it “Der Frumer Va’eira” — because it made them want to do teshuvah and become more frum.
The Tzemach Tzedek (who heard these maamarim from the Alter Rebbe) said that every time it was something new!
The Rebbe Maharash explained that even though the words were the same, since the Alter Rebbe was teaching it, every time he said the maamar it was something new.
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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #247) is that we can’t keep money that we owe someone else. This is called Oshek. Whether we owe them money that we borrowed, or we owe them because they did work for us and we need to pay them, if we keep that money it is like stealing!
So now we have three kinds of stealing: We have Geneivah (stealing something in a hidden way), Gezeilah (robbing something by force), and Oshek (holding someone else’s money that we owe them and not giving it to them — either telling them that we won’t pay, or by giving excuses, or tricking them).
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Kedoshim, לֹא תַעֲשֹׁק אֶת רֵעֲךָ, and a similar posuk in Parshas Ki Seitzei, לֹא תַעֲשֹׁק שָׂכִיר. The punishment for Oshek is the same as the punishment for Gezeilah, which we see from a posuk from Parshas Vayikra that puts them both together: וְכִחֵשׁ בַּעֲמִיתוֹ בְּפִקָּדוֹן אוֹ בִתְשׂוּמֶת יָד אוֹ בְגָזֵל אוֹ עָשַׁק אֶת עֲמִיתוֹ
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RAMBAM
Hilchos Gezeilah VaAveidah
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more about robbery.
Perek Daled teaches us about the knas (fine) that the Chachomim made against a robber. The person that was robbed is allowed to make a promise in Beis Din, and the robber will have to pay whatever amount he says the robber took.
Perek Hey explains that we are not allowed to use things that were stolen by a robber.
Perek Vov has halachos about when things can be counted as robbery even if they don’t look like robbery — like taking someone’s furniture that fell into the river and was washed away, or like gambling.
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The Rambam teaches us about how we know that someone is actually a relative, who should get the yerusha. The halacha is not usually very strict about proving that someone is related for yerusha — if the person who passed away called someone his son or his brother, we believe him, even if nobody else thought they were related.
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In today’s Hayom Yom, we learned about the maamar of the Alter Rebbe called the “Frumer Va’eira.”
The Rebbe spoke about the Frumer Va’eira in a sicha of Parshas Va’eira Tof-Shin-Yud-Beis. The Rebbe said that since the maamar was only printed once, and it was printed with some mistakes, he would chazer it for the chassidim. The Rebbe said the maamar, and cried a lot while saying it.
One of the main points of the “Frumer Va’eira” is that we need to use EVERY SINGLE chance Hashem gives us to connect to Hashem through Torah and mitzvos. When we realize how important this is, we will never miss a chance!. We will also do a proper teshuvah for any chance we missed in the past so that our lives are complete.
A month later the Rebbe spoke more about this inyan in a very famous maamar, called “Lo Sihiyeh Meshakeilah.” In the middle of saying this maamar, the Rebbe put his head down on the table and cried for a long time. The Rebbe spoke about how busy we need to be with our shlichus, and treasure every moment.
See the Frumer Vaeira (English translation), and maamar Lo Sihiyeh Meshakeilah online, in Hebrew or English
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The Chachomim set up the words of davening to help us express ourselves properly when we stand before Hashem three times a day.
The first three and last three brachos of Shemoneh Esrei praise and thank Hashem. In the middle 13 brachos, we ask for our needs. These 13 brachos are divided into two sections: The first half ask Hashem to help us have a Geulah Protis, and the second half ask Hashem to give us a Geulah Klolis.
The Geulah Klolis is when all Yidden are taken out of this Golus. The Geulah Protis is when we are free of the Golus inside of us — all of the things that stop us from doing our Avodas Hashem properly. Problems with health, parnasa, and our own Yetzer Haras make it hard for us to serve Hashem. In the first half of these middle brachos, we ask Hashem to free us from them.
The first of these brachos is Ata Chonen, where we ask Hashem to give us sechel. It’s very easy to get distracted by things around us, and get confused about what we are supposed to be doing. We ask Hashem to give us sechel to know what to do and how to do it!
The next bracha is Hashiveinu Avinu, that Hashem should give us the koach to actually DO what we know is the right thing!
After that comes the bracha of Selach Lanu. We ask Hashem to forgive us for our past aveiros. Once we prepared for davening properly, and asked Hashem to help us serve Him, we are on a higher level than before! We ask Hashem to help make sure that what we did in the past won’t stop us from doing the right thing now. We ask Hashem to free us from the bad habits we got into, so we can have a fresh start today.
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There are many mitzvos it’s easy to learn just by watching other people do them. For example, it’s not hard to learn how to shake the Lulav and Esrog properly.
But other mitzvos are complicated. Unless a person actually learns the halachos about them, he will probably not always be doing them right.
For example, we know that we are not allowed to talk during davening. But what if we hear thunder in the middle of Ashrei — do we stop and say the bracha? Or what if we are davening Shema slowly and we hear the Chazan starting to repeat Shemoneh Esrei — can we answer Amen? The answer to these questions are part of the halachos of Hefsek BeTefillah, when we can interrupt our davening.
We know that pens and markers are muktza on Shabbos. But what do we do if we find a pen in the box of mentchies? And what do we do if we picked up a pen by mistake? This is part of the halachos of muktza, and you won’t always know what to do unless you learn these halachos!
The Rebbe wanted everyone to learn the halachos that we need to live properly as a Yid. Starting from the youngest grades, all the way up to kollel and in the shuls, everyone should have daily shiurim in these halachos.
See in detail Shulchan Menachem vol. 4, p. 238 ff
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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 Rambam brings proofs from the Torah about Moshiach, but not from Navi.
The Rambam explains that we don’t need to bring proofs from the Neviim, because the whole Navi is FULL of pesukim about Moshiach.
But there are also a lot of parts of Navi that talk about other things, and even talk about Golus! How can the Rambam say that the Navi is full of pesukim about the Geulah?
The Rebbe explains that if we think about what the Geulah really is, and we think deeper into the meaning of the stories in Nach, we will see that EVERYTHING in the Neviim really is about the Geulah!
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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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