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At exactly midnight, Hashem does Makas Bechoros, and the Mitzriyim rush the Yidden out of Mitzrayim! At exactly midnight, Hashem killed all of the firstborns in Mitzrayim — the firstborn people (including the non-Jewish slaves) and the firstborn animals. The only firstborn who didn’t die was Paraoh, because Hashem wanted him to see the nissim of Kriyas Yam Suf so he will know and tell others that Hashem is in charge. Paraoh woke up, and then went and woke up all of his servants. All of the Mitzriyim woke up too. Everyone saw that the firstborns had died! In every house, there was at least one person dead. The whole Mitzrayim was full of crying! Paraoh ran out of the palace in the middle of the night to find Moshe and Aharon right away! He told them that all of the Yidden should leave Mitzrayim, with the adults, the children, and all of their animals! Some of the Yidden were afraid to go out into the desert, but the Mitzriyim told them to hurry and go! The Yidden didn’t have time to bake bread in the morning, so they just took the raw dough they made and their leftover matzah and maror from the Korban Pesach. They carried this on their backs, because they wanted to carry a mitzvah! They asked the Mitzriyim for their gold and silver and clothes for the way, and put them on their donkeys. The women also took tambourines, because they were sure Hashem would make nissim, and they wanted to be ready to sing and dance! Moshe made sure to take Yosef’s aron out of the Nilus, like Yosef was promised, and brought the aronos of the other Shevatim too. The Yidden also brought the trees Yaakov had planted, to use later for the Mishkan. Hashem sent a malach to show the Yidden where to go. They all went from Raamses (near Goshen) to a place they would call “Sukos,” near the Yam Suf. Moshe counted the Yidden, and there were about 600,000 men older than 20! (A group of goyim, called the Erev Rav, who wanted to join the Yidden, came too.) In Sukos, the Yidden baked the dough into matzah. This matzah lasted the Yidden for a month, until the mahn started to fall! The Torah tells us that the Yidden were in Golus in Mitzrayim for 210 years, 430 years since the Bris Bein Habesarim, when Hashem told Avraham that his children would go into Golus. At exactly the end of this time, Hashem took the Yidden out! They didn’t stay in Golus for one minute longer than they needed to. Forever, this night of Yetziyas Mitzrayim is called “Leil Shimurim” — a night Hashem protects us. At the end of today’s Chumash, there are some more mitzvos about the Korban Pesach: Only Yidden who believe in Hashem can eat the Korban Pesach, or a slave who belongs to a Yid. But, they all need to have a bris. And, it is asur to break any of the bones of the korban. All of the Yidden did what Hashem asked. |
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Today’s Tehillim is kapitelach Chof-Tes through Lamed-Daled. In the last perek of today’s Tehillim, Dovid Hamelech tells us “Sur Me’Ra, Va’asei Tov, Bakeish Shalom Verodfeihu” — “turn away from bad, and do good, and work hard to make shalom.” The Baal Shem Tov explains that in every gashmius’dike thing in this world, there’s a part that’s good and a part which is bad. The Gashmius on its own (without being used for a holy purpose) is bad. The good is the chayus of Hashem which gives life to this gashmius’dike thing. The posuk is telling us about the way we should look at Gashmius. A person who is using Gashmius needs to be a “Sur Me’Ra” — someone who turns away from bad. We shouldn’t want the pleasure that we get from the gashmius. Instead we should be “Asei Tov” — choose to want to be helped by the chayus of Hashem that is inside. Then, when we aren’t using the gashmius for selfish reasons, we should try to make shalom with the chayus of Hashem and the gashmius thing. How do we do that? By using the gashmius for the reasons Hashem wants it to be used — for doing mitzvos and for having koach to be able to serve Hashem! Hayom Yom Hey Menachem Av, Sefer Hamaamarim of the Frierdiker Rebbe, Yiddish, page 75 |
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The Alter Rebbe teaches us that we can use a special koach that is built into every Yid’s neshama to win over our Nefesh Habehamis all the time! The Nefesh Habehamis can only get us to do an aveira by giving us a Ruach Shtus — a foolish thought. It tricks us by convincing us that our aveira is not a big deal. But the Nefesh Habehamis is only able to convince us with this foolish thought most of the time. One thing it can NEVER convince us is that separating from Hashem is not a big deal. Every single Yid realizes that losing their connection to Hashem and to Yiddishkeit is a very big deal, and would be ready to even give up their life not to be separated from Hashem chas veshalom and to remain a Yid! That is the koach of the Ahava Mesuteres, a very powerful love for Hashem that is part of every Yid’s neshama. So if we can just realize that really EVERY aveira separates us from Hashem, then no Ruach Shtus will ever be able to convince us that it isn’t a big deal! The Alter Rebbe shows us where we see that really every mitzvah is like believing in Hashem, and every aveira is like serving Avodah Zarah and becoming separate from Hashem. There are two main mitzvos that are about being connected and never being separated from Hashem. They are the first two of the Aseres Hadibros, “Anochi Hashem Elokecha” and “Lo Yihiyeh Lecha Elokim Acheirim.” The Gemara teaches us that all of the Mitzvos Asei come from the first dibur, and all of the Mitzvos Lo Saasei come from the second dibur. That’s why we heard only the first two of the Aseres Hadibros directly from Hashem — because they include ALL of the mitzvos! So by hearing just these two mitzvos from Hashem, we are really hearing the entire Torah which is included in them, straight from Hashem. We also see from this Gemara that every mitzvah connects us to Hashem, “Anochi Hashem Elokecha,” and every aveira separates us — “Lo Yihiyeh.” To understand WHY aveiros separate us from Hashem, the Alter Rebbe needs to first teach us at least a little bit about Achdus Hashem, understanding how Hashem is everything and nothing changes Him. The posuk says, “Bidvar Hashem Shomayim Naasu,” that Hashem created the world with “speech.” Over the next few days, the Alter Rebbe is going to show us how Hashem doesn’t change after the world was created, by explaining the mashal of dibur and what dibur means lemaalah. We will see that Hashem makes the world in a way that it won’t recognize Achdus Hashem, and it will feel separate, which is the idea of Avodah Zarah. When a Yid doesn’t do what Hashem wants, he is separating from Achdus Hashem and connecting to the Avodah Zarah of the world. When we realize that, we will never ever allow it to happen! |
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In today’s Hayom Yom, we learn how important it is to use our koach of speaking to always say words of Torah! In a maamar that starts with the words “Bidvar Hashem Shomayim Naasu,” the Frierdiker Rebbe explains what it means that Hashem created the world with dibur. Then, the Frierdiker Rebbe says that the reason why Hashem created the world with dibur is so a Yid should use his dibur to strengthen the world that Hashem created with dibur! In the second half of that maamar, the Frierdiker Rebbe mentions what happens to the neshama after it finishes its job in this world. If a person wasted his time and talked a lot of narishkeit, the neshama needs a special cleaning called Chibut Hakever and Kaf Hakela. Today’s Hayom Yom is the last few lines of that maamar: A person needs to say many words of Torah, (like to say Tehillim or review Mishnayos) whenever and wherever he can! This way it will strengthen the world (because this is why Hashem created it), it will save him from needing Chibut Hakever and Kaf Hakela, and his neshama will be able to appreciate Elokus. |
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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Asei #194) is that a thief needs to give back whatever he stole. If he denied that he stole it in Beis Din and made a shevuah, he needs to pay it back together with an extra chomeish (fifth) ! If the thing he stole changed, he needs to pay what it was worth to the person he stole it from. We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Vayikra: וְהֵשִׁיב אֶת הַגְּזֵלָה אֲשֶׁר גָּזָל Because of this mitzvah, the aveira of stealing is called a “Lav Shenitak L’Asei”, meaning that the Mitzvas Lo Saasei can be “fixed up” by doing a Mitzvas Asei — in this case, the Lo Saasei of stealing can be fixed up by giving back what was stolen plus an extra fifth. The details of this mitzvah are explained in the last perakim of Mesechta Bava Kama. |
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In today’s Rambam, we learn about Hashovas Aveida. Perek Yud-Gimmel teaches us about how we find the owner of something we found. Outside of Yerushalayim there used to be a big rock that people would stand on and announce what they found! There’s a halacha that in a certain case, if we find something and can’t find out who it belongs to, we should watch it until Eliyahu Hanavi comes with Moshiach, and he will tell us what to do with it! Perek Yud-Daled tells us that while we’re waiting to give something back, we need to take care of it so it doesn’t get ruined. For example, if we find something made of wood, we should make sure to use it so it doesn’t get rotten. Perek Tes-Vov teaches us about when we DON’T need to give something back — if the owner gave hope that he will ever find it again (yiush). For example, if someone loses something in the sea, or in the sand on the beach, they don’t really expect to ever find it again. |
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The Rambam teaches us that the Beis Din doesn’t let someone have their part of the yerusha until they are sure that the person really passed away. So if the father disappeared when he was on a long trip, the sons don’t get the yerusha even if they think that their father must have passed away. |
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There are two things that happened on Yud Shevat. The first thing that happened was the histalkus of the Frierdiker Rebbe, and then right away the beginning of the Rebbe’s nesius. Even though we feel more connected to the fact that it is the beginning of the Rebbe’s nesius, it is clear that the Rebbe also wanted us to keep the minhagim connected to the Yom Hilula of the Frierdiker Rebbe. There is a letter the Rebbe wrote before Yud Shevat, with the minhagim of the yartzeit. One of these minhagim is important to know for the Shabbos before Yud Shevat: It is a minhag to get an aliyah to the Torah in connection with the yartzeit. In many sichos, the Rebbe also speaks about making a farbrengen, if possible, also on the Shabbos before Yud Shevat. Of course, we need to think to ourselves to make hachlatos in connection with Yud Shevat, to add in learning the Rebbe’s Torah, and making sure we are fulfilling the horaos that the Rebbe gives us on how to live our lives in our time, as we prepare for Kabolas Pnei Moshiach Tzidkeinu. See farbrengen Gimmel Nisan Tof-Shin-Mem-Beis |
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In Shemoneh Esrei, the bracha that we say to ask Hashem for parnasa is “Bareich Aleinu.” (If you look at the translation of this bracha, you will see that it is all about rain and growing things. That’s because it used to be that everyone’s parnasa was connected to farming.) It says in Hayom Yom that when we ask Hashem to bring bracha on all that we grow, we should have in mind the matzah for Pesach, the esrog for Sukkos, and the wine for Kiddush. When the wheat, esrogim, and grapes grow well, we can do these mitzvos in the nicest way. When the reason we ask for parnasa is to do mitzvos properly, Hashem will surely bentch us with plenty of parnasa. |
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The halacha is that children — boys or girls — who understand the inyan of Shabbos have a mitzvah for Chinuch to make Kiddush or be yotzei Kiddush by hearing it from someone else. If a child is making his own Kiddush, it is important to know how much wine or grape juice he needs to drink! The halacha is that a person who makes Kiddush needs to drink at least a Melo Lugmav, enough to fill up one cheek. But this isn’t the same size for everyone, it goes by the actual size of your cheek! So a small child, who has a small cheek, doesn’t need to drink much at all when he makes Kiddush. But even though he doesn’t need to DRINK very much, we still need to make sure that the Kiddush cup is the right size. The smallest size for a kosher Kiddush cup is a Revi’is, and even a child should use at least this size, even if he will only drink a small part of it. Baed on the audio halacha shiurim of Rabbi Farkash, and see Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, siman Reish-Ayin-Alef, se’if Chof-Daled |
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לעילוי נשמת הרה״ח ר׳ דניאל יצחק ע״ה בן ר׳ אפרים שי׳ מאסקאוויץ
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The Navi says, “Kimei Tzeis’cha Me’Eretz Mitzrayim Arenu Niflaos.” In the time of the Geulah, Hashem will show us nisim like when we came out of Mitzrayim. From here we learn that the Geulah from Mitzrayim is an example for the Geulah of Moshiach! Here is one way that they are the same: It says about Yetziyas Mitzrayim that it came in the zechus of the women — Bizchus Noshim Tzidkonios Nigalu Avoseinu. Moshiach will also come in the zechus of the Noshim Tzidkonios (righteous women) of our times! That is why the Frierdiker Rebbe and the Rebbe were very careful to make sure that women have a very good Chinuch. Especially compared to the Rebbeim in other generations, they gave so much of their time and kochos for this! There were special letters, sichos and horaos just for the women, to help make sure that the Noshim of our times will be Noshim Tzidkonios, who will bring Moshiach in their zechus. See Sefer Hasichos Nun-Beis p. 300 |
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לע"נ התינוק זאב ארי' ע"ה בן יבלט"א הרה"ח ר' שניאור זלמן שי' גליק
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