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The Yidden learn that firstborns are special to Hashem. They also learn about Pesach, and about remembering the Geulah by writing about it in our Tefillin. Yesterday, we learned about Yetziyas Mitzrayim! The Yidden left Mitzrayim and came to a place called Sukos. In Sukos, Hashem said that since the Yiddishe firstborns were protected from Makas Bechoros, they are special to Hashem. The firstborn boys should become kohanim until the Mishkan is built. The firstborn animals should be given to the kohanim and brought as korbanos. For the firstborn donkeys, you should do Peter Chamor, giving the kohen a lamb or goat instead. Now that the Yidden weren’t in such a rush, Moshe told them about the Yom Tov of Pesach. He told them about eating only matzah, and about telling the children about the nissim of Yetziyas Mitzrayim. He also told them to write about the Geulah from Mitzrayim and put it into their Tefillin. These pieces of Chumash are written on the parchment in Tefillin, to remind us every day about Yetziyas Mitzrayim. |
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Today’s Tehillim is kapitelach Lamed-Hey through Lamed-Ches. In Kapitel Lamed-Zayin (37), Dovid Hamelech says, “MeiHashem Mitzadei Gever Konanu” — “Hashem decides where each person goes,” “Vedarko Yechpatz” — “and He wants His way.” Chassidus teaches that these two things are connected: BECAUSE Hashem wants His way, THAT’S why He decides where each person goes. Hashem puts us into each place to do His special shlichus there. So when we end up somewhere with Hashgacha Protis, we need to remember that we’re there because Hashem has a job for us to do there — and we’d better make sure to do it right! |
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The Alter Rebbe is telling us in short what Achdus Hashem (the oneness of Hashem) means. Understanding Achdus Hashem will help us understand how every MITZVAH is a CONNECTION with Achdus Hashem, and every AVEIRA is chas veshalom a SEPARATION from it. Then we will not let the Ruach Shtus from our Nefesh Habehamis convince us that there is anything too small or not worth it when it comes to doing what Hashem wants! We say in davening, “Ata Hu Ad Shelo Nivra Ha’olam, Ata Hu Mishenivra Ha’olam” — Hashem is the same now that He created the world, just as He was before He created it. That is part of the Emunah Peshutah (simple Emunah) that every Yid has. The Alter Rebbe will explain this emunah and make it part of our Chabad, part of our understanding. When it’s not just emunah, but we understand it also, it will change the way we feel and behave, and the Ruach Shtus won’t be able to trick us! We could ask, how is it possible that Hashem is the same as He was before He created the world? The world is so big, so important and complicated — how can you say that Hashem didn’t change at all from it? We learned before that “Bidvar Hashem Shomayim Naasu” (the Shomayim was made through the word of Hashem). This mashal of a word will help us understand! Because just like one word that a person says makes absolutely no difference to who he is, the world, which is just the “word of Hashem,” doesn’t make any change to Hashem! The world isn’t so big after all — it’s like nothing next to Hashem. Now let’s take a closer look at this mashal to understand it better, how one word of a person makes no change to who the person is. Hashem made a person with an unlimited koach to speak. If a person wanted to, he could talk all day without stopping, from morning to night! So a single word that a person says is like nothing compared to what he is able to say. But don’t think that the koach of SPEAKING is so powerful and important either! Remember that a person can only say something he thought of first, and a person thinks a lot more than he speaks! Even if someone is talking all day long, he is still thinking way more than that, because thought is much faster and more powerful. And don’t think that the koach of THINKING is so special and powerful either! Before a person is even able to think about something, he first has to WANT it with his midos, and even before that, he needs to KNOW about it (sechel)! That knowing and wanting doesn’t even have words, and the amount of things you can know about and want are unlimited! For example, imagine going into the biggest library in the world, and pulling out just one book. Open that book and look at one word. Is that word important at all compared to everything you can learn from all of the books in the library? Or imagine asking for a treat. Is that word important compared to all of the delicious kinds of foods that there are in the world that you can find out about and want? So to go back to our one word: It’s like nothing compared to the koach of speaking. And our koach of speaking is like nothing compared to our koach of thinking. And our koach of thinking is also like nothing compared to our koach of midos or sechel! We understand that one word of a PERSON is like nothing compared to what the person is able to know and want, and who he is. So we can understand that since the world is like a single word of Hashem, it is like nothing compared to Who Hashem is! This gives us words to understand our emunah that Hashem is the same as He was before the world was created. Besides the world not being important compared to Hashem, we will see starting in tomorrow’s Tanya that the world is still a part of Hashem! The world is not able to change Hashem at all. |
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Did you ever hear of Ruach Hakodesh? In today’s Hayom Yom, the Rebbe tells us what it means to have Ruach Hakodesh. It means that the person understands deep secrets of the Torah! The Yidden that were closer to the time of Matan Torah were more Ruchnius’dik, and the seforim that Talmidei Chachomim in those times wrote were written with Ruach Hakodesh. The Rebbe tells us that this was true until after the time of the Shach and Taz (who wrote a pirush on the big Shulchan Aruch). Nowadays, only certain seforim, written by certain Talmidei Chachomim, are written with Ruach Hakodesh. |
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Today we learn TWO mitzvos about Hashovas Aveidah, the matching Mitzvas Asei and Lo Saasei: 1) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #269) is that we can’t ignore something that we find, and just pretend we didn’t see it. If we see something lost, and we do ignore it, we are doing this aveira — the Lo Saasei of Hashovas Aveidah. We learn this from a posuk in Parshas Ki Seitzei, when Moshe Rabbeinu reviews the mitzvos with the Yidden before they go into Eretz Yisroel: לֹא תוּכַל לְהִתְעַלֵּם The details of this mitzvah are explained in the second perek of Mesechta Bava Metziah, Perek Eilu Metzios (one of the first pieces of Gemara learned in many Chadorim). 2) (Mitzvas Asei #204) is that we need to bring back something we find to the person who lost it. That’s the Mitzvas Asei of Hashovas Aveidah! The Torah tells us about this twice. Once is in Parshas Mishpatim, right after Matan Torah: הָשֵׁב תְּשִׁיבֶנּוּ לוֹ Then we learn about it again, in Parshas Ki Seitzei, in Moshe’s review of the mitzvos: הָשֵׁב תְּשִׁיבֵם לְאָחִיךָ The details of this mitzvah are also explained in the second perek of Mesechta Bava Metziah, Perek Eilu Metzios. |
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more halachos about returning things that we find — Hashovas Aveidah. Perek Tes-Zayin explains when you need to return money or a treasure that you find. Usually, you are allowed to keep money that you find in the street, unless it has a siman (a sign), like it is arranged in a pile. Money that you find on the counter in a store needs to be returned, but money found on the floor in a store does not need to be. Perek Yud-Zayin: Sometimes there is a lost object that the Torah says we do not need to return. There are halachos about what we need to do to make it ours. For example, just looking at it and saying, “I found it! I’m keeping it!” is not enough. We need to actually do something, like picking it up, for it to belong to us. Perek Yud-Ches teaches the halachos of what we do if we find a shtar (contract). One of the halachos is that we do NOT give back a contract where somebody owes money, because maybe it was already paid, and if we give it back they will have to pay again! Now we have finished learning the section of halachos about Gezeilah V’Aveidah. |
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This is a very short perek! The Rambam teaches us that we don’t let a different relative take care of a field for a child under Bar Mitzvah who got it as a yerusha. That’s because that relative might then say that it was HIS field that he got as a yerusha, and people could believe him, since after all, he is a relative. |
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We learned in Hayom Yom that until the Shach and the Taz, seforim were written with Ruach Hakodesh. How do we know which seforim nowadays are written with Ruach Hakodesh? Here’s a story heard from Rabbi Dovid Edelman A”H, which he told in connection with the beginning of the Rebbe’s nesius on Yud Shevat: One time, before the Rebbe’s nesius began, he walked into the Zal in 770 and saw a bochur who was learning the Pnei Yehoshua (a pirush on the Gemara that is learned in all Yeshivos). The Rebbe said to the bochur, “Do you know that the Pnei Yehoshua (who lived after the time of the Shach and Taz) wrote other seforim as well? So why does everyone learn only this sefer? “Because all Yidden collectively have a certain kind of Ruach Hakodesh. When Yidden see a sefer that’s written with real Ruach Hakodesh, we can ‘feel’ it! When everyone chooses to learn a certain sefer, we can know that it was written with Ruach Hakodesh.” ~ Before the Frierdiker Rebbe’s histalkus, it was not said clearly to all of the Chassidim that the Rebbe should become Rebbe. So how did everyone know? Rabbi Edelman said that he felt that it was similar to this story: All of the Chassidim had a kind of Ruach Hakodesh, and everyone was able to understand that the Rebbe should become Rebbe. |
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During a farbrengen, the Frierdiker Rebbe once said: Neginah (singing niggunim), and especially Neginah during davening, is one of the Darkei Hachassidim, the ways that Chassidim act according to Chassidus. He explained that singing niggunim brings out a kavana. It helps us daven properly in a way that it will change our Nefesh Habehamis, the way we feel. In Tof-Shin-Nun-Beis, a short time before Chof-Zayin Adar, one of the last sichos we were zoche to hear from the Rebbe, the Rebbe also spoke about the special koach of niggunim during davening! (When we’re little, we get used to singing different parts of davening with a tune, so that it’s easier to say the words together. Here it means especially to sing a niggun by itself, to help with kavana, or that our kavana brings us to sing a niggun. This will bring a special chayus to our davening!) See Sefer Hasichos Tof-Shin-Beis, p. 134 |
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The Chachomim teach us ten things we are careful to do for a Kos Shel Bracha. A Kos Shel Bracha, a kos of bracha, is a cup of wine we use for special things, like bentching, Kiddush, or Havdalah. One of these ten things is that we are “Mekablo B’Shtei Yadav” — we take the kos with two hands. Taking something with two hands shows that we are excited to have it, and we really want it very much. We take it with two hands to show that the Kos Shel Bracha is very special to us! But when we actually make the bracha, we hold the kos with only one hand, because if we held the kos with two hands it would look like it’s annoying to hold. In halacha there is a discussion about how we hold the kos for the actual bracha. Do we hold it with our fingers, the way we hold a regular cup, or do we hold it in the palm of our hand, the way we would hold a handful of something? According to kabbalah, we hold it in the palm of our hand, and have our fingers around the kos. According to the Chabad minhag, the way we do it is like this: First we pick up the kos with our right hand, then pass it to our left hand. This way, we used both hands to take the kos! Then, we get our right hand, which is our more important hand, ready to hold the kos for kiddush. We hold our hand out, with our fingers a little bit upward, like our hand is a little bowl (klei kibul). We lower the kos down into the palm of our hand to make Kiddush. (A lefty would do this backwards, and lower the cup into his LEFT hand, which is his more important hand, to make Kiddush with.) See Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch siman Reish-Ayin-Alef se’if yud-ches, siman Kuf-Pey-Gimmel se’if zayin |
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לעילוי נשמת הרה״ח ר׳ דניאל יצחק ע״ה בן ר׳ אפרים שי׳ מאסקאוויץ
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We expect Moshiach to come any second, right? Here’s a story about how the Rebbe would talk about Moshiach: R’ Zalmon Jaffe, a chossid from Manchester, England, loved his trips to the Rebbe. One Motzei Shabbos, right before he left back to England, he held the door of 770 open for the Rebbe. “Gut voch!” R’ Zalmon told the Rebbe. “Everything is perfect now — except for one thing.” The Rebbe smiled, and was happy to hear that. “But what is that one thing that isn’t perfect?” R’ Zalmon answered, “Tomorrow we are going home, and leaving the Rebbe!” The Rebbe answered, “Tomorrow is still another day, and I will see you again. In any case, Moshiach may come, and everything will be changed!” See “My Encounter With the Rebbe,” by Zalmon Jaffe, book 1, page 158 |
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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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