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CHUMASH
Parshas Ki Sisa - Chamishi with Rashi
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We learned before about the Cheit Ha’eigel, the aveira that the Yidden did with the Eigel Hazahav, and how when Moshe Rabbeinu saw what happened, he broke the Luchos that Hashem had given him. Then, Moshe asked Hashem to forgive the Yidden. He also asked that Hashem’s Shechinah should rest only among the Yidden. Hashem agreed to what Moshe asked, and said that He would tell Moshe the Yud-Gimmel Midos HoRachamim.
In today’s Chumash, we learn how Hashem told Moshe to make a new set of Luchos, and Hashem actually teaches him the Yud-Gimmel Midos.
Hashem told Moshe that he did the right thing by breaking the Luchos, but now Moshe needs to make NEW luchos himself. In the ground under Moshe’s tent was sapphire — a very special shiny kind of stone. He should use that stone to make the Luchos. Moshe should also make a box to hold the Luchos until the Aron in the Mishkan will be ready!
The next morning, Moshe should come up on Har Sinai again (for the third time!), but this time, not like by Matan Torah, nobody should be at Har Sinai — some things are better to be done quietly.
Moshe did what Hashem asked, and went up onto Har Sinai on Alef Elul, bringing the Luchos that he made along with him. Hashem appeared to Moshe like a person wearing a Tallis and Tefillin, and told Moshe the Yud-Gimmel Midos HaRachamim.
Moshe bowed down when he saw that Hashem revealed Himself to him.
Then Moshe davened to Hashem using the Yud-Gimmel Midos he just learned, asking Hashem to forgive the Yidden. He asked Hashem for all of the things he asked before: That Hashem should come with the Yidden to Eretz Yisroel (and not just a malach), “Vesolachta La’avoneinu Ulechatoseinu Unechaltanu” — to forgive the aveiros done on purpose or by mistake, that the Yidden should be special to Hashem, and Hashem should only dwell among the Yidden.
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Every year, Chassidim would make a niggun from the Rebbe’s birthday kapitel! In each one of today’s kapitelach, we have these niggunim.
One of the niggunim is “Vaanachnu Amcha Vetzon Marisecha.” We thank Hashem for the special zechus to be His nation!
(You can watch Chassidim singing this song by a farbrengen in front of the Rebbe!)
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Lamed-Hey
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In the beginning of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe taught us something that the beinoni needs to always know: It is his job to use his koach of Moach Shalit Al Halev, in order to win over the Yetzer Hara.
How do we do this avodah? We need to use our moach, our mind, to remember how we are ready to have Mesiras Nefesh to do whatever Hashem wants, and we need to use our sechel to think about the greatness of Hashem, so we understand how important it is to do what Hashem wants us to.
We also learned that to have hatzlacha with Moach Shalit Al Halev, our lev can’t be worried! If we have atzvus because we are worried about things, or Timtum Halev, we won’t be able to do this properly.
But a beinoni might get very frustrated! He keeps fighting to win over his Yetzer Hara, but his Yetzer Hara never goes away! He ends up winning and doing what Hashem wants, but his Yetzer Hara is still there!
Now the Alter Rebbe will explain that it’s not our job to beat our Yetzer Hara completely! That would be very frustrating, since we would never finish! A beinoni doesn’t have the koach to change his Yetzer Hara into a Yetzer Tov. That’s the avodah of a tzadik. Only when Moshiach comes, will Hashem change our Yetzer Hara into a Yetzer Tov too!
So what is the beinoni’s job? Why does he have to keep fighting?
The Alter Rebbe will teach us that the point is to bring the Shechinah down into the world and to bring the Geulah! The way to do this is by doing mitzvos and Maasim Tovim, and winning over the Yetzer Hara who is trying to keep us from doing them. That is what will bring Moshiach, and that’s a job that a beinoni should be very happy that he IS able to accomplish!
There is a posuk from Shlomo Hamelech, in Koheles that says, “Hachochom Einav Berosho.” “A chochom has his eyes in his head.”
The Zohar asks, “Where else would he have eyes?!” It explains that having eyes on your head means caring about what is over our head — the Shechinah!
Did your mother ever ask you to “keep an eye on your baby sister?” That means to keep checking on the baby and care about what happens to her! “Einav Berosho,” to have our eyes in our head, means the same thing — to watch over the Shechinah that is there. The only way the Shechinah will stay there is if we are careful to do mitzvos to keep it there.
The Shechinah which is in our head is compared to an oil candle: An oil candle has three parts, a wick, oil, and flame. The body of a Yid is like the wick, the mitzvos are like the oil, and the Shechinah that shines on it is the flame.
The Zohar is telling us that if we are a chochom, we will make sure the light of the Shechinah is lit well. We do this by making sure we have plenty of mitzvos and Maasim Tovim, which are the oil that will keep the Shechinah shining in us always!
Based on this Zohar, the Alter Rebbe will explain two things to us:
1) We will be able to understand how special it is to ACT like a Yid (not just to FEEL like a Yid). We will see how acting like a Yid and DOING the mitzvos is the most important thing.
2) How to appreciate our life as trying to be beinonim, even though it means that we might not be able to destroy the Yetzer Hara completely until Moshiach comes. We will learn that through mitzvos and Maasim Tovim, we are really doing the main shlichus that the neshama came into the guf to do!
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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!
Tes-Zayin Adar Alef
In this week’s parsha, we learn about the Kiyor.
There were many beautiful things in the Mishkan. There were things made of gold and silver that glowed, but nothing shone like the Kiyor, which was made of the mirrors brought by the women. (The women donated the mirrors that they used in Mitzrayim to help them have more children.)
The Kiyor was very special because it was the last thing made for the Mishkan, but it was always used first — the Kohanim needed to wash their hands and feet before they could do their avodah!
That’s because “Na’utz Techilasan BeSofan” — the beginning and end are very connected.
Today’s Hayom Yom are words from the Alter Rebbe, first said to the Chosssid R’ Gavriel Nossai Chein. Read the story behind today’s Hayom Yom in short in today’s Inyana D’Yoma!
Tes-Zayin Adar Sheini
A person who has a business has a very hard job! Not just the work he does, but he has a hard job in his Avodas Hashem. He is never sure when he will get more money to buy food and clothes for his family. But a Yid can’t walk around being worried all the time! A Yid needs to have bitachon.
Did you ever take an important test in school that you weren’t sure you did well on? How did you feel while you were waiting to find out how you did? You were probably very nervous.
Now, how did you feel when you found out that you did just great? You probably felt so relieved and happy!
Bitachon is feeling that same kind of happiness, but even BEFORE you find out what grade you got on the test! You are so sure that Hashem will help, that you aren’t even a little worried! You’re just happy and confident because Hashem will FOR SURE make things work out fantastic.
A businessman has to have this kind of bitachon all the time! Even though he doesn’t know where the money is coming from, he has to walk around happy — just as if he already had the money in his pocket!
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In today’s Rambam, we are starting a new set of halachos: The halachos about borrowing or lending money. There are many mitzvos about this, and today we are learning two of them:
1) (Mitzvas Asei #197) To lend money to poor people, to make their life a little bit easier. The Rambam says that this is even more important than tzedakah! That’s because people don’t want to become poor and need to ask for money — it will be very embarrassing for them! When you give them a loan, you save them from needing to ask for tzedakah!
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Mishpatim: אִם כֶּסֶף תַּלְוֶה אֶת עַמִּי אֶת הֶעָנִי עִמָּךְ
The details are explained in many places in Mesechta Kesubos and Mesechta Bava Basra.
2) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #234) Not to ask a person to pay back your loan if you know he can’t.
We learn this mitzvah from the same posuk in Parshas Mishpatim: לֹא תִהְיֶה לוֹ כְּנשֶׁה
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In Perek Alef, we learn that it’s a special mitzvah to give a loan to a poor person, or anyone who needs it. Lending money is a very big mitzvah!
But borrowing money is a very serious thing too — if a person borrows money when he does not need to, and then can’t pay back the loan, he is called a rasha.
Perek Beis teaches us how the Chachomim helped make it easier for us to lend money: After the time of the Gemara, there were a lot of sneaky people who said they couldn’t pay back their loans — even though they really could. The Chachomim decided to force people to make a shevuah (a very strong Torah promise in Hashem’s name) in front of the Beis Din if they said that they did not have money. That stopped people from lying, and kept everyone from being afraid to lend money!
We also learn the halacha that when someone gives a loan, he should have witnesses, a mashkon, or a contract, to show that it is a serious thing and make sure all of the details of the loan are clear (like the exact amount he lent).
In Perek Gimmel the Rambam teaches us about a mashkon: A mashkon (a security) is when someone takes an object from someone he lent money to, and gives it back when he is paid back. We learn the details of mitzvos we will be learning later, like not taking a mashkon from an almanah (widow), or not taking a mashkon from keilim that are used to make food with.
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In today’s Rambam we are learning more about people who can’t be eidim:
We learn that a person who isn’t a mentsch — like if he doesn’t learn Torah at all, and doesn’t have normal friends — is considered a rasha and we can’t use him as an eid. If he has no aidelkeit and will take off his clothes in front of other people while he is working so he can be more comfortable, he might not be embarrassed to lie in front of Beis Din either!
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Today’s Hayom Yom was words said by the Alter Rebbe to the chossid R’ Gavriel Nossai Chein. Here is the story behind it:
Background: In Vitebsk lived a man named R’ Gavriel, a true Talmid Chochom with aidelkeit and good midos. He was the grandson of the old R’ Gavriel, who was respected in the whole city of Vitebsk — even by the governor!
When he was old enough to get married, the young R’ Gavriel married the daughter of a rich man who also lived in Vitebsk. His father-in-law gave him money so he could sit and learn Torah all the time.
When he had questions in his learning, he would often ask another young man living in Vitebsk, named Shneur Zalman. (He would later become the Alter Rebbe!)
After nine years, though, R’ Gavriel’s father-in-law passed away. Now R’ Gavriel had to work, so he took over a store that his father-in-law used to own. Still, he made time to learn, and to listen to R’ Shneur Zalman explain things in Torah.
Then R’ Shneur Zalman went to the Maggid of Mezritch. The people in Vitebsk were sure that Chassidus was against Torah, and they were all furious! They told R’ Yehuda Leib Segal (the Alter Rebbe’s father-in-law) to send him away from his house and not let his daughter stay married to him!
The Alter Rebbe made a public debate, explaining how Chassidus IS Torah. Many people (but not everyone) now understood and agreed that Chassidus was good. R’ Gavriel was one of these people, but his family didn’t like it at all! They started being mean to him because he wanted to learn more Chassidus from R’ Shneur Zalman.
R’ Gavriel’s father was so upset, he even tried to get the governor to kick the Alter Rebbe out of Vitebsk! But because the Alter Rebbe had figured out two mysteries for the governor (one of them is the story of the sundial), the governor didn’t want to do anything to him.
R’ Gavriel had a very hard life. He didn’t have any children (even though he was married for 25 years already), and he didn’t have money either, since his family made so much trouble for him he couldn’t earn anything. But he never complained to the Alter Rebbe, and in fact gave a lot of tzedakah to the Alter Rebbe’s tzedakah funds.
Once R’ Gavriel came home in a sad mood. He told his wife, Chana Rivkah, that the Alter Rebbe had asked Chassidim to give money for Pidyon Shevuyim, but he didn’t have that much money to give. Chana Rivkah said, “Didn’t you tell me that the Rebbe teaches us to have bitachon? Don’t worry, we’ll be able to give the right amount!”
Chana Rivkah sold her jewelry, and brought the money to her husband in a closed bag. “Go bring it right away to the Rebbe,” she told him.
R’ Gavriel said that usually Chassidim wait until the Rebbe’s messenger comes, and send it with the messenger. But soon R’ Gavriel’s brothers made up a story about him to the government, and he lost a lot of money. R’ Gavriel was afraid he would use the money himself if he kept it for too long, so he went himself to bring it to the Alter Rebbe in Liozna.
When he put the bag of money down in front of the Alter Rebbe, the Rebbe told him to open the bag and count it. He was amazed to see that the coins shone like they were brand new!
The Alter Rebbe said the words of today’s Hayom Yom — that the shiniest part of the Mishkan was the Kiyor. Even though it was made last, it was used first!
When the Alter Rebbe asked, R’ Gavriel explained how his wife had gotten the money, and how he was afraid he would spend the money, so he brought it now.
The Alter Rebbe told him, “Your wife has destroyed the gezeira against you! Hashem will give you children, a long life, and wealth! Close your store, and start selling jewelry and diamonds instead.”`
When R’ Gavriel came home and told this to Chana Rivkah, she told him how she had shined the coins with sand, so Hashem could help their mazal shine.
Within three years, R’ Gavriel became very rich, they began to have children, and everyone liked him — so much that they started calling him, “R’ Gavriel Nosei Chein!” (“who finds favor in people’s eyes”).
You can read the whole story at Chabad.org/85441
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There is a halacha that we are not allowed to eat before davening.
Why?
A person with a neshama is connected to Hashem in a higher way than food is. When we eat food, we can bring it up closer to Hashem!
But that’s only when our neshama is spread out in our body! Before we daven, our neshama is still sleeping. Our guf is busy thinking about taavos and worrying about parnasa. When we daven, we wake up the neshama so it spreads out through our whole body. This way the neshama is in control and helps us think about the right things!
Before davening, a person isn’t connected to Hashem in a higher way than the food. So if he eats before davening, he can’t bring the food closer to Hashem! He can only do it once he already davened.
(Only if a person needs to eat in order to daven properly, then he can use the food to help his davening.)
See Likutei Torah Dibur Hamas’chil “Vaachaltem Achol”
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The Alter Rebbe writes in Shulchan Aruch that starting 30 days before Yom Tov, we should start learning the halachos about it. Since Purim was 30 days before Pesach, we have started to learn some of the halachos of Pesach.
The Torah is very strict about chometz. There is a mitzvah that no chometz can be seen or found on Pesach, and we can’t have any hana’ah from chometz at all. There is a very serious punishment called Kareis for someone who eats chometz on Pesach.
There are many kinds of food that are asur to eat, like meat from a non-kosher animal, or milk and meat together. But the issur of chometz is different. For all other kinds of asur food, there is something called “bittul.” If there is a big pot of cholent, and a little bit of milk splashed in by mistake, the milk can become botul, counted like it wasn’t there, and the soup might still be kosher.
But chometz is different. Even one teeny tiny piece is asur to eat!
Because of this, Yidden are extra strict with Pesach. We are very careful to stay far away from even a CHANCE of eating chometz.
The Alter Rebbe writes that Yidden are holy, and have a minhag to scrub off all chometz that we can find stuck to things, even if it’s only a drop which is sometimes not necessary according to halacha when it’s less than a kezayis. Not only that, but they even clean and scrub places like the chairs and table they eat, even when they DON’T find chometz there, because chometz was used there!
See Shevach Hamoadim, introduction to Hilchos Pesach
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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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After the Cheit Ha’Eigel, Moshe asked Hashem to forgive the Yidden.
“Hashem, You know that the Yidden are stubborn, so You should forgive them! Ki Am Kshei Oref Hu, Vesolachta!” Moshe was saying, “Hashem, You know they have a Yetzer Hara! Just forgive them, even though they made a mistake! They are Kshei Oref, they are stubborn. They can’t always stop themselves from doing every aveira!”
Chassidus explains that Kshei Oref, also called akshanus, means that you don’t compromise or change your mind. And Moshe Rabbeinu isn’t telling Hashem to forgive the Yidden because of something not good, but because of something VERY good that Yidden have! It is a very good thing that the Yidden are an Am Kshei Oref!
We have a tricky Yetzer Hara, that always tries to convince us to do what Hashem doesn’t want. But we are stubborn! We say, “I am a Yid and I need to behave the way Hashem wants me to, no matter what!”
Since the Yidden have that big maalah, that Shtus Dikedusha of being STUBBORN, they deserve that Hashem should forgive them!
Ultimately, Hashem did forgive the Yidden, and to show the whole world that He forgave us, He asked the Yidden to build the Mishkan.
In a famous sicha on Chof-Ches Nissan, 5751, the Rebbe told us we should use this koach! When we are stubborn to live the way a Yid should, Hashem will bring the Geulah and give us the Beis Hamikdash Hashlishi!
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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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