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CHUMASH
Parshas Yisro - Shishi with Rashi
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The Yidden prepared for Matan Torah, and are now gathered around Har Sinai to receive it.
Hashem brought Shomayim down so it was on Har Sinai!
This was the most the Yidden would ever be able to see Hashem, and Hashem told Moshe to make sure none of them tried to come closer to Har Sinai to see better, because they can’t touch Har Sinai.
Moshe didn’t think the Yidden needed to be told again not to touch Har Sinai, because they were already told before. Hashem told Moshe to tell them again because there needs to be a warning before, and a warning at the actual time of Matan Torah too.
Finally, after all the preparations, Hashem was going to give the Torah, and now every Yid would have the zechus and achrayus to keep all of its mitzvos.
Hashem said all of the Aseres Hadibros all at once! Then Hashem said them again, one at a time.
1) Anochi — I am Hashem Who took you out of Mitzrayim!
2) Lo Yihiyeh — don’t have or serve idols
3) Lo Sisa — Don’t promise something silly or not true in Hashem’s name
4) Zachor — Remember and keep Shabbos
5) Kabeid — Honor your parents — Kibbud Av Va’eim
6) Lo Sirtzach — don’t kill
7) Lo Sinaf — don’t marry someone who is already married to someone else
8) Lo Signov — don’t kidnap
9) Lo Saaneh — don’t lie about someone in Beis Din
10) Lo Sachmod — don’t be jealous of other people’s things
Even though the Yidden only heard ten mitzvos, really, the whole Torah is hinted to in these Aseres Hadibros!
Something amazing happened at Matan Torah! It used to be that Ruchnius and Gashmius were always two separate things. Even though the Avos used Gashmius to do mitzvos, it never got kedusha! So the sticks that Yaakov Avinu used to do the mitzvah of tefillin with did not become holy afterwards! But as we learned in today’s Chumash, at Matan Torah, Shomayim came down to the world. After Matan Torah, even a Gashmius thing can become full of kedusha when we use it for mitzvos!
That’s also the reason why we see that some of the mitzvos in the Aseres Hadibros seem very obvious. Everyone understands on their own that it’s not right to kidnap! But after Matan Torah, these mitzvos also become full of kedusha! So when we don’t kidnap, we’re not just doing it because it makes sense, but because it’s a mitzvah that Hashem told us to do!
Throughout history, we see that many nations go against the Aseres Hadibros, even the mitzvos that make so much sense. They decided, when it was better for them, that it makes sense to do cruel things! The same thing is true with all of us! We can’t be sure that we will behave in the right way with other people if we do it only because it makes sense. The only way that we will keep these mitzvos of not hurting another person, even when it is hard, is if we do them with Kabolas Ol — because it is a mitzvah from Hashem. (See Likutei Sichos chelek Gimmel parshas Yisro, and many other places)
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In today’s Tehillim, we have the kapitel that the Leviim would sing in the Beis Hamikdash on Shabbos — the Shir Shel Yom for Shabbos.
One of the pesukim in this kapitel speaks about how everybody thanks Hashem on Shabbos.
The posuk says, “Tov Lehodos LaHashem” (it is good to praise Hashem). This is talking about Shabbos.
Hashem is always good, but on Shabbos we can FEEL it more! That’s why especially on Shabbos Hashem’s goodness makes us want to thank and praise Hashem!
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Chof-Hey
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Based on what we learned until now about the hidden love for Hashem that helps us do all the mitzvos, we can understand what Moshe Rabbeinu told the Yidden before they went into Eretz Yisroel:
In Chumash Devarim, we learn about all the things Moshe Rabbeinu told the Yidden before they went into Eretz Yisroel. One of the mitzvos Moshe gave the Yidden to do was to say Shema two times a day, so that they will be Mekabel Ol Malchus Shomayim and even be ready to have Mesiras Nefesh for Hashem.
Even though Moshe promised the Yidden that they WOULDN’T need to give up their lives, he told them that they should say Shema twice a day and be ready to have Mesiras Nefesh. Why?
Moshe Rabbeinu wanted the Yidden to use their Ahava Mesuteres to serve Hashem! They didn’t need to HAVE Mesiras Nefesh, but they needed to REMEMBER that they would be READY to have Mesiras Nefesh! That would help them stay away from every aveira and stay connected to Hashem always!
This is the end of the explanation that the Alter Rebbe started in Perek Yud-Ches, to teach us how to make serving Hashem with feeling, very doable for everybody, “Karov Eilecha Hadavar Meod.”
That’s because every Yid has the koach of Mesiras Nefesh, and we just need to remind ourselves of it to be ready to do the Ratzon of Hashem no matter how hard it may be!
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The Rambam tells us what each of the 613 mitzvos are (in the Sefer Hamitzvos and the Rambam). The first mitzvah, the Rambam tells us, is the first thing Hashem told us in the Aseres Hadibros: To know that there is an Aibershter, Who makes everything be, and that all of our chayus comes only from Hashem.
This mitzvah uses a special part of ourselves that most other mitzvos don’t! Tefillin, lighting Shabbos candles, and giving tzedakah all use our hands. To go to shul or to visit a sick person — we use our feet. The havdalah candle uses our eyes. Saying nice things to a friend uses our mouth.
But this mitzvah is a mitzvah for our MIND and our sechel.
Every Yid believes in Hashem, and is ready to do whatever Hashem wants. But this mitzvah tells us that it’s not enough to believe in Hashem — we need to use our mind to understand about the existence of Hashem as much as we can! (We fulfill this mitzvah by learning Chassidus, which explains to us about Yediyas Hashem!)
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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #251) is the same one as yesterday’s! This mitzvah is that we are not allowed to hurt other people with our words (Ona’as Devarim). We aren’t allowed to say mean things, or things that will make someone embarrassed or feel bad.
For example, we aren’t allowed to remind a Baal Teshuvah about the aveiros he did, or tell someone who is sick that it must be a punishment for something he did. We also can’t ask questions to a storekeeper to make him think that we are going to buy something if we aren’t really planning on buying it.
We learn this from a posuk in Parshas Behar: וְלֹא תוֹנוּ אִישׁ אֶת עֲמִיתוֹ וְיָרֵאתָ מֵאֱלֹקֶיךָ
The details of this mitzvah are explained in Perek Daled of Bava Metziah.
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more about how to do business the Torah way!
Perek Tes-Zayin teaches us about when we can return something and get our money back! One halacha is that if we buy a cow and the person who sold it didn’t tell us that it had no teeth, so it dies from not eating anything, we can give back the dead cow and get all of our money back.
Perek Yud-Zayin explains when the Torah says a sale wasn’t fair, and we can give back what we bought and get our money back. When we sell something, we need to make sure to tell the truth about what it is and how good it is!
In Perek Yud-Ches the Rambam teaches us about not tricking people when we sell something. We can’t paint an old car to make it look new, or put fancy apples on the top of a bag of rotten ones so someone will buy it. But we ARE allowed to give out balloons or candies to kids who come to our store so they will want to come back!
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In this perek, one of the things we learn is that every judge has to have his OWN opinion. Because of that, we don’t ask the oldest or greatest judge to say his opinion first, because then the other judges might not want to say something different.
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One of the maamarim in this week’s Torah Ohr is the famous maamar called “Bachodesh Hashlishi.” This maamar speaks about the koach of Torah!
The guf can sometimes make it hard for the neshama to do what it is supposed to. But Torah can change that!
Torah is called “Oz Vetushiya.” It is Oz (strength), because it gives strength to the neshama, and it is Tushiya (a helper), because it helps us make the Yetzer Hara weaker.
To get this koach of Torah in the best way, the Alter Rebbe tells us that we need to learn Torah in a special way: We need to remember that it’s HASHEM’S Torah, like by Matan Torah, when we could SEE that Hashem was giving it to us.
Whenever we learn Torah, we should remember that the words we are saying are the same words that were said by Matan Torah, and the same words that the Chachomim explained to us over the years. We are just repeating them! This is called learning Torah with bittul. We aren’t thinking about ourselves, we are thinking about the Torah of Hashem!
When we learn Torah this way, the Torah has the koach of Oz Vetushiya, so we can have hatzlacha in doing our shlichus in the world.
This maamar was said by the Alter Rebbe in preparation for the Yom Tov of Shavuos. It was put in Torah Ohr by the Tzemach Tzedek, because it is also connected to Yisro where we learn about Matan Torah. The Rebbe sometimes asked that it be learned on Shavuos, and would speak about the maamar both on Shavuos and in Parshas Yisro.
In Tof-Shin-Nun-Beis, the last sicha of Parshas Yisro that we heard from the Rebbe, the Rebbe spoke a lot about this maamar.
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In the bracha of Retzei, we ask Hashem to accept the tefillos we just said. But these tefillos are not complete. Our tefillos are supposed to be along with the korbanos in the Beis Hamikdash! We ask that Hashem should rebuild the Beis Hamikdash and again have His Shechinah rest there, so that we can serve Hashem the way we are truly supposed to.
The Medrash Shocher Tov tells us that in the times of Dovid Hamelech, the Aron traveled to many different places. It didn’t have a proper home, and there wasn’t a place for the kohanim to do their avodah. In that time, thousands of soldiers passed away, because they didn’t demand for Hashem to build the Beis Hamikdash.
If so, it is a Kal Vachomer for us! Those Yidden didn’t know how wonderful a Beis Hamikdash was. There had never been a Beis Hamikdash, and of course, there was never a Churban. But we DID have a Beis Hamikdash, and we do know how terrible it is that the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed.
So we need to REALLY cry out to Hashem in every tefillah, asking Him to bring us back to Yerushalayim and the avodah in the Beis Hamikdash. This is why the Chachomim set up this bracha of Retzei.
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The Chachomim teach us that Ain Kiddush Ela Bemakom Seudah — Kiddush has to be connected to the seudah.
This means that in order to be yotzei Kiddush, you need to be eating right afterwards. This usually means eating the seudah of Shabbos, but what if you’re not ready to eat the meal yet? The halacha is that eating a kezayis of Mezonos (like cake or cookies), or drinking a revi’is of wine, are counted as a “seudah” for Kiddush.
So just because someone heard Kiddush doesn’t mean he is yotzei! If he didn’t eat then, he still needs to make or hear Kiddush again.
We will learn more about this IY”H in the next shiur.
See Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch Siman Reish-Ayin-Gimmel, se’if Alef, Zayin and Ches
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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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When the Yidden camped around Har Sinai to get the Torah, they camped like one person, with one heart — “Ke’ish Echad, BeLeiv Echad.”
In Tanya it teaches that Matan Torah was a taste of the way it will be in the times of the Geulah!
The Rambam tells that we will also have this kind of Achdus before Moshiach comes. One of the jobs of Moshiach is “Veyisaken Es Ha’olam Kulo Laavod Es Hashem Beyachad” — to make the whole world ready to serve Hashem TOGETHER!
Just as we got the Torah with true Achdus, we will have the Geulah with true Achdus!
See Migolah L’Geulah p. 312
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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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