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CHUMASH
Parshas Ki Sisa - Shishi with Rashi
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Hashem agreed to make the Yidden special, and to only make the Shechinah rest with the Yidden.
Hashem was very happy that Moshe had asked the Yidden to be forgiven with the Yud-Gimmel Midos HoRachamim. Even though before Hashem said that the Yud-Gimmel Midos will only help IF Hashem gives permission, now Hashem said that Moshe has permission to use them ALL the time!
Hashem said that He would give Moshe new luchos, but He is also making the Yidden promise again to keep the following mitzvos and only serve Hashem, like they promised before Cheit HaEigel:
- Don’t leave Avodah Zarah in Eretz Yisroel, from the nations who live there now!
- Keep the Yom Tov of Pesach!
- Give Hashem every firstborn boy (Pidyon Haben), firstborn kosher animals, and firstborn donkeys. (We give them to Hashem by giving them to the Kohanim.)
- Bring a korban when you come to the Beis Hamikdash for Yom Tov!
- Rest in the Shemitah year!
- Keep the “Shalosh Regalim” — the three Yomim Tovim where Yidden need to go to the Beis Hamikdash — Pesach, Shavuos, and Sukkos!
- Bring the Korban Pesach only after you get rid of all your chometz!
- Bring bikurim to Hashem!
- Don’t use meat and milk cooked together, even if you’re not eating it!
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In Kapitel Pey-Daled, there is a posuk “Yeilchu Mechayil El Choyil, Yeiro’eh El Elokim BeTzion.” This means that people who trust in Hashem go from strength to strength, and they go before Hashem in Yerushalayim.
The Rebbe tells us that Yeilchu Meichayil El Choyil, when we are always doing better than before, brings Yeiro’eh El Elokim Betzion, that we will be able to go to the Beis Hamikdosh! When we keep trying to do better, every single day and every single hour, we will bring the Geulah!
Chassidus says that there is a new chayus from Hashem that comes into the world, not just every day, but every hour! When that chayus comes, we get more opportunities to grow in Yiddishkeit! We need to make sure to use that new energy to do more!
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Lamed-Hey
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Yesterday we learned that a Yid is like an oil candle: The fire is the Shechinah, the wick is the body, and the oil (that the fire needs) is the mitzvos.
Today the Alter Rebbe explains why only MITZVOS work as the oil to keep the Shechinah shining on us. Really, we would think that the holy neshama should be enough to keep the Shechinah shining! Why do we need mitzvah oil?
The Alter Rebbe tells us that of course the neshama is very holy and a part of Hashem, but it can’t make Hashem SHINE. When we say that Hashem is shining, it means that you can’t see anything except for Hashem!
That doesn’t work with just a neshama, because once a neshama comes into the body of a person, it feels a little bit separate from Hashem.
But mitzvos are Hashem’s Ratzon, where Hashem is not hidden at all! So when a Yid does a mitzvah, the only thing that’s important is Hashem Himself and that this mitzvah is what Hashem wants us to do! That’s why it takes mitzvah oil to make Hashem’s Shechinah shine in a Yid, because there is nothing else in the way.
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The Hayom Yom was written for a year where there were TWO Adars (a Shana Me’uberes). This year there is only ONE Adar (a Shanah Peshutah), so we learn BOTH Hayom Yoms every day!
Yud-Zayin Adar Alef
This story happened before the Geulah of Yud-Tes Kislev. After that, the Alter Rebbe would say much longer Chassidus. What we learn today is a whole maamar, and you can see it was very short!
Once the Alter Rebbe came out to the Chassidim and said, “In Gan Eden, all of the Malochim see how special it is to do a mitzvah in this world! They would give anything for one “Amen Yehei Shmei Rabbah” of a Yid who says it with his whole kavana!”
When the Chassidim heard this, everyone was so excited! For a whole year, everyone said “Amen Yehei Shmei Rabbah” with a lot of kavana!
Yud-Zayin Adar Sheini
There are two ways to write the word “Kol” (everything) — sometimes it is with a komatz, and other times it is with a cholam. In this Hayom Yom the Rebbe shows us the proper nekudos.
In today’s Tehillim, in the posuk “Kol Maayonai Boch” (in the kapitel that starts “Livnei Korach”) we say it with a Komatz. But when we say this paragraph before bentching, we should say the word “Koil” with a Cholam!
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Even though it’s a mitzvah to let a Yid have longer to pay back money he owes, we are supposed to make sure a goy who doesn’t believe in Hashem pays back right away. (Since goyim do this to each other, they expect us to do the same. If we don’t, it would be a loss for a Yid’s money.) That is today’s mitzvah in Sefer Hamitzvos (Mitzvas Asei #142).
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Re’eh: אֶת הַנָּכְרִי תִּגֹּשׂ
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In today’s Rambam, we learn about not taking neshech, interest.
In Perek Daled, we start to learn about interest. What is interest? Let’s say Reuven asks Shimon to lend him $100, and Shimon tells Reuven he has to pay him back $105 instead of $100. Any time we want someone to pay us back more than what he borrowed, that’s interest and it’s asur. The Rambam says that this is a big aveirah, and someone who does it is like denying Hashem and Yetzias Mitzrayim!
In Perek Hey, we learn that it is a mitzvah to charge interest to a goy, but it’s a bigger mitzvah to lend another Yid without interest.
Did you know that even WORDS can be interest? If someone gives you a loan, you have to be careful about thanking him — because those words can make him feel good, and that will be like giving him interest! You also can’t do him any extra favors because of the loan.
Perek Vov: Sometimes when a person borrows money, he gives a Mashkon to show that he will pay it back. If the Mashkon is something that a person could benefit from, like a field that grows fruit, or a house that a person can live in, it can be interest if the person eats the fruit or lives there. This perek teaches how to be careful about this kind of interest!
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Now we answer a very important question: There are many ways a person can be considered a rasha, but how do we know if he did teshuvah and isn’t counted as a rasha anymore?
The Rambam tells us some ways how we can know, depending on the kind of aveira a person did. For example, if someone lent money with ribbis (interest) like we learned about before, we know he did teshuvah if he apologizes, rips up any contract that had ribbis, and stops lending with ribbis even to goyim, when he is allowed to! Or a person who sold non-kosher food to make more money, if he moved to a place where people don’t know him, and lost a lot of money because of kashrus, we know he did teshuvah.
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Now that it’s after Purim, we need to start thinking about preparing for Pesach! The halacha is that we start to learn the halachos about the Yom Tov starting from 30 days before.
One of the first mivtzoyim which the Rebbe started was to make sure that the Yidden we know about should have Shmurah Matzah for the Pesach sedarim. Now is a good time to think about who we need to bring Shmurah Matzah to and how we will bring it!
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Many grow-ups drink a cup of coffee in the morning to help wake them up. As we will see from this maamar, davening is like a cup of coffee for the neshama!
When a Yid goes to sleep, the neshama goes up to Hashem to get chayus for the next day. In the morning, Hashem gives the person back his neshama.
But the neshama can’t shine in the guf until the person davens! The guf is too grob (coarse) for the neshama to be felt in the body.
Davening is how a neshama connects to Hashem WHILE it is in the guf. It makes the person more aidel, and able to feel the neshama.
There is a posuk in Yeshaya that says, “Chidlu Lachem Min Ha’Adam Asher Neshama Be’Apo, Ki Bameh Nechshav Hu?” “Separate yourself from a person whose neshama is in his nostrils, because what is he worth?”
The Gemara explains this posuk, saying that the word “Bameh” (what is he worth), can be read as “Bamah,” a Mizbeiach for Avodah Zarah!
Chassidus explains that before a person davens, his neshama is still “be’apo,” in his nostrils. It hasn’t spread out into the whole body, so that the person can feel it. This kind of person is like a bamah! Just like a bamah is a big Mizbeiach that sticks out, a person who hasn’t davened yet doesn’t feel Hashem, he feels like he is very important for himself!
That’s why the FIRST avodah of the day has to be for a Yid to connect to Hashem through davening. We need to right away wake up the neshama and spread it throughout the guf, so we will be able to make the right kinds of decisions all day, to use the Gashmius to serve Hashem!
Based on the maamar Lecha Dodi 5689, said at the Rebbe and Rebbetzin’s chasuna; and Lecha Dodi 5714
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Imagine you are getting ready for your birthday party. A few days before, you get a package from Bubby and Zaidy in the mail, with a beautifully wrapped present inside. There is a note that says that you should open it at the party, when all of your friends and family are there. You put the package on the dresser in your room so it will stay safe until the birthday party! Every day, you wonder what is inside. But then, a day before, you can’t hold yourself back. You rip off the big bow, and tear off the pretty wrapping paper. Now you can see what a special toy Bubby and Zaidy bought for you! But then, at the party, when you bring out the present, it doesn’t feel the same. The bow is gone, the wrapping paper is torn, and now it isn’t a special surprise anymore! How would you feel?
For this reason, on Erev Pesach, it is asur to eat matzah. We are supposed to wait until the seder, when we can eat it with excitement as part of the special mitzvah.
Many Yidden have a minhag to be careful not to eat matzah starting from Rosh Chodesh Nissan — two weeks before Pesach. The Chabad minhag is to not eat matzah starting from 30 days before Pesach, when we start preparing for the Yom Tov.
What kind of matzah does this mean? What about egg matzah, machine matzah, or matzah balls for example?
In Shulchan Aruch, in the halachos of Erev Pesach, it says that matzah that you wouldn’t be yotzei the mitzvah with on the night of the seder is not included in this isur. There are also some who say that matzah that tastes different than the matzah you would eat on Pesach (like machine matzah) is not part of the isur. It is important to check with your family’s Rav so you know what to do!
We are allowed to give even Shmurah Matzah to very young children who don’t understand that matzah is special for the Pesach seder.
See Halachos Uminhagei Chabad, Piskei Teshuvos siman Tof-Ayin-Alef, halacha newsletter by Rabbi Shmuel Lesches of Melbourne Australia
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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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This week we read an extra part of the Torah — Parshas Parah. This is one of the four extra parshios we lein around Chodesh Adar.
This section is from Parshas Chukas, and it teaches us about the Parah Adumah, that we use to make Yidden tahor. Since it will soon be Pesach, and we can’t bring the Korban Pesach when we are tomei, we need to learn how to become tahor again!
One of the things we learn from this is how important it is to prepare for Geulah! Before the Geulah of Pesach, we make sure we are ready, by reading the section in Torah about becoming tahor.
There is also another Geulah coming up soon — the Geulah Sheleimah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu, and we also need to prepare for that!
How do we get ready for this Geulah? We start making ourselves more tahor, by getting in control of our Yetzer Hara. When Moshiach comes, all of the tumah will go away completely and there will not be a Yetzer Hara at all, but for now we do the best we can! This way we will be READY when Moshiach comes!
See Likutei Sichos chelek alef, p. 222
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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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