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CHUMASH
Parshas Mishpatim - Shishi with Rashi
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At the time of Matan Torah, the Yidden were able to feel kedusha in an amazing way!
In today’s Chumash, Hashem tells the Yidden that this time of Matan Torah won’t be able to stay. The Cheit Ha’eigel will happen and end this special time. Instead, Hashem will send a malach to go with the Yidden, and they won’t feel Hashem the way they could before.
But Hashem has Eretz Yisroel ready and waiting for them!
If the Yidden do their avodah, things will be good for them! If the Yidden listen to Hashem, Hashem will take all of the goyim out of Eretz Yisroel so the Yidden can go live there.
The Yidden should not worship any of the idols the goyim will leave — instead they should break the idols into pieces! They should daven only to Hashem and not to Avodah Zarah. Then Hashem will give them a special reward, that their food and their water should be good, and that the Yidden will stay healthy!
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Today’s shiur in Tehillim is the second half of Kapitel Kuf-Yud-Tes.
Kapitel Kuf-Yud-Tes is a very special kapitel which speaks about the maalah of Torah and mitzvos!
One of the pesukim is “Taan Leshoni Imrasecha” — “My tongue repeats Your words.” Chassidus explains on this posuk that when a Yid learns Torah, Hashem learns Torah with him! How?
The words of the Torah we are learning were not made up by Moshe Rabbeinu, the Tannaim, Amoraim or Tzadikim. These are words of Hashem that they said! When we say these words, we are also repeating those same words, and Hashem is saying them with us!
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Chof-Ches
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In today’s Tanya, we learn what to do with Machshavos Zaros, thoughts that come to bother us when we are davening or learning Torah.
Let’s say we are in the middle of davening Shacharis. We are looking inside the siddur and trying to concentrate on the words we are saying.
All of a sudden, we realize that we didn’t take care of something important, or we remember an argument we had with someone. Now we are very worried and can’t think about the davening anymore!
What should we do?
This kind of thing often happens to people specifically when they are davening or learning Torah. In this perek, the Alter Rebbe tells us what to do about it.
First, we learn what NOT to do:
There are tzadikim who are able to take these thoughts and make them become kedusha. But that’s not something that a regular person is able to do, so we shouldn’t dry to do it ourselves.
So what SHOULD we do?
The Alter Rebbe tells us that we should just ignore these thoughts or worries completely. We should daven with MORE kavana!
The Alter Rebbe explains why this is happening, and why we need to ignore it.
These thoughts are coming from the Yetzer Hara. Why does the Yetzer Hara want to bother us NOW with these thoughts?
The Yetzer Hara is annoyed that the neshama is doing so well, becoming stronger as it connects to Hashem. That’s why specifically now it tries to fight very hard to distract us by making us think about things that have nothing to do with our davening or learning.
So instead of letting these thoughts bother us, we should really be very happy! These thoughts show us that our neshama is getting stronger and that we are doing the right thing, which is why the Yetzer Hara wants to stop us! With this extra simcha, we will be able to concentrate harder on our davening and learning, and not pay attention to any of these thoughts!
The Alter Rebbe tells us this about learning and davening, and the Rebbe adds that the same is true with all parts of our Avodas Hashem and the shlichus that each of us have. When things are hard or something is trying to stop us, that shouldn’t make us upset! We should realize that what we are doing is making kedusha stronger and accomplishing something very important! That is why the opposite side of kedusha is making it hard for us. Knowing this should give us more chayus to continue doing our shlichus with an even greater simcha! (See for example Maamar Vaeira 5738)
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Today’s Hayom Yom teaches us about ahava in the Avodah of Chassidus:
The ahava, the love that Chassidim have for each other, that the Rebbe has for Chassidim, and Chassidim have for the Rebbe — is the Ruach Chayim, it’s what brings chayus into the avodah of living the way a chossid should!
This love and connection is from a deep part of our neshama which gets its chayus from Hashem, Who created time and place. So just like Hashem is higher than time or place and rules over it, this love from the neshama is also not limited by time and space, so we can feel love for each other even if we’re not in the same place, and even to someone who we can’t see begashmius at this time.
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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Asei #245) is the same mitzvah again. When we sell something to another Yid, or buy something from another Yid, we have to do it the Torah way! There are many halachos that we need to follow to make sure we are doing it right.
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RAMBAM
Hilchos Zechiya U'Matana
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In today’s Rambam, we learn halachos about special kinds of presents:
In Perek Zayin, we learn about Shushvinus: In the olden days, when a person wanted to get married, his friends would all give him money. Then, he would have to give THEM money when they were ready to get married. Since this was like a loan, not like a real present, in some cases they would be able to demand the money back through the Beis Din.
Perek Ches teaches us that with a Shechiv MeRa, someone very sick, there are some special rules, to make it easier for a person to give presents to his family before he passes away. The halacha is that these presents are only given if he does pass away — if he gets better, he can change his mind or give them in the regular way.
Perek Tes has halachos about times when we might think the Shechiv MeRa’s presents shouldn’t count.
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This perek teaches us how many malkos to give. We try to figure out how many a person can handle, and only give that many.
Because of the way malkos are given (one on the front, then one on the back on each shoulder), we only give a number that we can divide by 3, like 9 or 12 or 18.
If a person can only handle 11, we round down to 9, not up to 12!
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This week is Parshas Shekalim. On Rosh Chodesh Adar, the Beis Din would start reminding people to give the Machatzis Hashekel! So on Rosh Chodesh Adar if it is on Shabbos, or on the Shabbos before, we add an extra piece to Kriyas HaTorah. We lein from Parshas Ki Sisa, about the Machatzis Hashekel.
In the last farbrengen that we were zoche to hear from the Rebbe, which was Parshas Shekalim 5752, the Rebbe spoke in a very powerful way about Ahavas Yisroel.
(One of the Mazkirus (the Rebbe’s secretaries) said that he had never heard the Rebbe speak this strongly about Ahavas Yisroel before.)
We are each like a Machatzis Hashekel, like a half a shekel. Only when we come together with another Yid, do our two halves become whole!
Because of this, the Rebbe said, meeting another Yid should make us beam with joy! We should be SO happy because only with this other Yid do we both become complete!
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Shemoneh Esrei has three parts:
1) Three brachos at the beginning, where we praise Hashem
2) Thirteen brachos in the middle, where we ask Hashem for our needs — first the needs of individuals, and then the needs of Klal Yisroel
3) Three brachos at the end, where we conclude our requests and thank Hashem.
The second bracha of these last three brachos starts with the words “Modim Anachnu Lach,” and finishes with the bracha, “Hatov Shimcha Ulecha Na’eh Lehodos.”
At the beginning of this bracha, we say that we recognize that Hashem is our Aibishter. We realize that He is our chayus, and that He takes care of every detail of our lives with His Hashgacha Protis. Then we thank Hashem for accepting our tefillos, and for all the good He does for us.
We thank Hashem for doing nissim for us — all the time! Many times, we don’t even notice that there are nissim taking place. We thank Hashem for always taking care of us, and making many nissim happen that we don’t even see.
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The Chachomim made a takanah that we should say Havdalah in Maariv and also make Havdalah over a kos of wine. At this Havdalah, we first make a bracha on wine, and then we make a bracha about Havdalah, that Hashem separates between Shabbos and the weekday.
The Chachomim also added two more brachos: A bracha on besamim, and a bracha on a ner (candle). Together there are four brachos, which are the Roshei Teivos of the word “Yavneh” — Yayin, Besamim, Ner, Havdalah.
Why do we use besamim?
On Shabbos, every Yid is given a Neshama Yeseira, an extra neshama.
According to Niglah, this extra neshama is the special peaceful way we feel on Shabbos, because of the resting and the Oneg Shabbos, enjoying Shabbos. According to Kabbalah, this is an actual extra neshama that comes into us for Shabbos.
But on Motzei Shabbos, the Neshama Yeseira goes away. We go back to the regular weekday feelings of hard work, without the special feelings we get from the Neshama Yeseira. This can make our neshama feel sad!
So the Chachomim made a minhag that if we can, we should smell something sweet to make our neshama feel better. Of all of the things our Guf enjoys, smells are the most Ruchnius’dike type of thing, so our neshama enjoys it too. When we smell the besamim, we bring a little bit of simcha to our neshama as it goes into the week, to give it the koach it needs to fulfill the shlichus it has in the world.
See Kitzur Halachos Siman Reish-Tzadik-Zayin, se’if Alef and haoros
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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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On Shabbos, we will read Parshas Shekalim. One of the things the Machatzis Hashekel teaches us is that one Yid without a second Yid is just a half! We will learn a vort from the Baal Shem Tov which shows us more about how one Yid needs another:
It says in the posuk (in Parshas Bereishis) that when Hashem created Adam Harishon, Hashem said, “It is not good for a person to be alone. I will make for him an Eizer Kenegdo, a helper.” This is when Hashem gave Adam Harishon another person — Chava!
The Baal Shem Tov says that we learn from this posuk how another Yid is our helper: Hashem uses another person as a mirror for us! When we look in a mirror, we see ourselves. If our face is clean, we don’t see anything dirty in the mirror. If we DO see dirt in the mirror, it is because our OWN face is dirty! The same thing is with another person, who is like a mirror for us.
If we think too much about how another person isn’t good, and not just about fixing the person’s problem, that is a sign that we have that not-good thing in ourselves too.
Imagine if we see someone doing something that could hurt someone else. We might think, “What a terrible kind of person! He doesn’t care about other people! Look at what he is doing!” We aren’t thinking about how to help him be more careful, we’re just upset at him. Really, we should realize then that he is a mirror for us! Maybe WE need to be more careful about not hurting other people ourselves.
When a tzadik looks at another person, because he doesn’t have any Ra (bad) inside of himself, he doesn’t see Ra in another person either! If he does see a problem, he doesn’t think about how awful the other person is, he just thinks about how he can help the person become better.
But if we do see the bad in the other person, it is like a mirror. We are just seeing the bad inside of ourselves.
So instead of getting angry about what another person is doing, we should try to help them in a nice way if we can, and work on fixing up the things that need to be corrected in OURSELVES!
When we look at another person in this way, we will not be so angry at other people, and we will have more Ahavas Yisroel.
The Rebbe says, “When we act in a way of Ahavas Yisroel and Achdus Yisroel ... we will be zoche to the Geulah Ho’amitis Vehashleimah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu, Bimheira Veyameinu Mamosh, immediately now!”
See Keser Shem Tov siman 302, Likutei Sichos chelek Yud parshas Noach (English translation), Hisvaaduyos 5745 p. 741
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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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