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CHUMASH
Parshas Vayikra - Revi'i with Rashi
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Today we learn about another kind of Korban Nedava that a person can give as a present to Hashem, called a Korban Shelamim. Rashi says that this korban is called Shelamim from the word Shalom, because someone who brings this korban brings Shalom to the world! It is called Shelamim, many Shaloms, because it brings shalom to everything and everyone involved in the korban! The Mizbeiach gets a part of it, the kohen gets a part of it, and the ones who are bringing the korban also get a part of it!
A person can bring a Korban Shelamim from 3 kinds of animals — any kind of cow, or a sheep, or a goat. Of course, none of them can have a mum — any injuries or anything wrong with it!
Part of the animal gets burned on the Mizbeiach, including all of the cheilev, a certain kind of fat that is inside of an animal.
The Torah reminds us that even though the cheilev is brought as part of a korban, Yidden are not allowed to eat cheilev or blood!
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At farbrengens, the Rebbe would often speak about things that need to be corrected in our time.
In a Chai Elul farbrengen, the Rebbe spoke about the Minhag of Yidden that we say Tehillim in an Eis Tzara, a time of trouble. As we learned yesterday, really, along with saying Tehillim in such a time, we should be giving tzedakah together with it.
But why was this not part of the minhag before?
The Rebbe explains that at many times in the past, a lot of Yidden were extremely poor. They barely had enough bread to eat, or a shirt that wasn’t torn. They did not have even an extra penny to give to tzedakah!
Nowadays, we are not all rich. But everyone can give at least SOMETHING to tzedakah.
So nowadays, we should not only say Tehillim in an Eis Tzara, we should also give tzedakah, asking Hashem to take away our troubles and bring us a yeshuah!
See sicha Chai Elul Tof-Shin-Mem-Hey (English essay)
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Lamed-Zayin
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In yesterday’s Tanya, we learned about the maalos of learning Torah, which is more important than ALL the mitzvos! Still, if there is a mitzvah and there is nobody else to do it, the halacha is that a person needs to stop learning Torah and go do the mitzvah.
That’s because mitzvos make the world into a Dira Betachtonim, and that’s the whole reason the neshama came into the world! If nobody else can do that mitzvah, we need to stop learning and make sure the world can become a Dira Betachtonim!
But if someone else can do the mitzvah, we shouldn’t stop learning, because of the maalah of Torah. Torah makes the light of Hashem shine in the neshama in an even higher way than mitzvos can!
The Rebbe once used this halacha in a letter to explain why Lubavitcher chassidim don’t stay in kollel for many years after getting married. Instead, they go out on Shlichus. Since there aren’t enough people doing the important mitzvah of bringing Yidden back to their Yiddishkeit, they can’t just sit and learn Torah — there’s an important mitzvah waiting, and not enough people doing it!
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Today, because there are only 29 days in Adar, we will do THREE Hayom Yoms! (When there is an Adar Alef, it is 30 days long, so there’s another Hayom Yom we need to learn today!)
Chof-Tes Adar Alef
In the year Tof-Shin-Gimmel, today was Shabbos Mevorchim Adar Sheini. It is a minhag to farbreng on Shabbos Mevorchim, and say Lechaim!
Today the Rebbe tells that there are two nuscha’os of what to answer when someone says Lechaim at a farbrengen:
1) “Lechaim Tovim Ul’Shalom!” — “for a good life, and for shalom.” Why do we say these words? We say this because we need to be careful with wine — in the Torah, when Adam and Noach drank wine, not such good things happened. So we give a bracha that THIS wine should only be good!
2) The way the Maggid of Mezritch used to answer: “Lechaim Velivracha!” “For life and for bracha!”
The Alter Rebbe said this for the first time once at a farbrengen. The Chassidim discussed this nusach, which was new to them! One chossid explained the reason for these words: “Livracha” (“for bracha”) can also be split into two words — “Lev Raka,” a soft heart. Since when we drink wine, people can see what we feel, we need a bracha that only a Lev Raka should come out.
The Tzemach Tzedek said about this chossid, that he understood this because he davened and worked hard in his avodah for 30 years!
Lamed Adar Alef
The Rebbe Rashab said, “A Chosid macht a svivah.” What does this mean?
When a chossid acts the way a chossid should be, people around him see and learn from him. They also start to act the way the should!
If that’s not happening though, if people around us aren’t starting to behave better, we need to ask ourselves why.
If a chossid sees that he is not making a sevivah, it should bother him very much! He should ask himself, “Vos tu ich oif der velt?” “What am I accomplishing in the world?”
Chof-Tes Adar Sheini
The Rebbe Rashab said at a farbrengen:
Hashem created the world “Yeish Me’ayin” — something out of nothing!
The Avodah of a Yid is to change it around — we need to make “something into nothing (Me’Yeish Le’Ayin)!”
We need to take the world, that is called Yeish, because it is Gashmius; and make it into Ayin, which means Ruchnius. We do this by using the Gashmius to help us with Ruchnius and Avodas Hashem!
This is an avodah that EVERY Yid needs to do.
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In today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Asei #246), we learn (like the past few days) that if there are ever people who have an argument about money or belongings, then Beis Din has a mitzvah to decide what should be done, according to the rules of the Torah.
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RAMBAM
Hilchos To'ein Venit'an
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Perek Yud-Gimmel: Here’s a case that could come before Beis Din: Reuven was living in a house for a long time, and Shimon came to him and said, “What are you doing in this house?! It’s mine!” What does the Beis Din do?
There’s a big problem here — Reuven doesn’t have a contract to show that the house is his! He didn’t keep the paper!
But Beis Din will still believe Reuven, even without the contract and let him stay in the house. This is because of something called “chazaka” — if a person was living in a house or using a field for 3 years, with other people knowing, that proves it belongs to him — because otherwise Shimon would have told him to move out a long time ago!
But there are some people where this is not a proof — like business partners. These people might not mind if their partner is using their house, but it doesn’t mean that they should be able to keep it forever! There is a different halacha for them — Shimon needs to prove the house used to be his, and needs to make a special kind of shevuah that he didn’t give it away or sell it to his partner.
In Perek Yud-Daled, one of the things we learn is that even if a person CAN’T use chazaka to prove that the property is theirs, they can bring witnesses to show that they bought it.
But a robber can’t do that either! If he once stole a field, the Beis Din will never be able to trust him, because maybe the person only pretended to sell the field to him because he was scared of him, since he is a robber!
Perek Tes-Vov teaches us what to do when witnesses come to Beis Din to say that the person has a chazaka on the property, but they don’t say exactly the same thing. If one person says he grew wheat for three years and the other witness says he grew barley, we accept the witnesses, because that is a small detail that the witnesses could make a mistake in. But if one witness says he worked there during the odd years, and the other witness says he worked there during the even years, then we don’t have any witness to say he has a chazaka, and he has to give the property back!
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In this perek, we learn about making rules so that Yidden will keep the Torah better. A Beis Din should only make these kinds of rules if they are sure that most of the Yidden can keep them.
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Once a very rich person came to the Rebbe for Yechidus. He wasn’t a chossid, but was very impressed with the Rebbe and the Rebbe’s shluchim. He told the Rebbe that he wanted to give a lot of money to a “big project.”
The Rebbe told him that he should give a big donation to Chabad in Eretz Yisroel, for Mivtza Matzah. The Rebbe explained how Chassidim go around to their neighbors and friends, and make sure they each have Shmurah Matzah for the Seder. This can cost a lot of money!
The man wasn’t very happy with what the Rebbe said. He wanted to do something big and important, something that would last. He didn’t want to be paying for matzos that nobody remembers after Pesach is over!
But the Rebbe explained to him: “You asked me what I think is a big project — for me, this is what I consider a big project.”
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In Biur Tefillah, we are preparing for Pesach by going through the Haggadah to understand it a little better.
In the beginning of Maggid, the children ask the Mah Nishtanah, the questions about why we see so many different things at the seder. This is a preparation for understanding what we are celebrating on the night of Pesach.
We start explaining what is special about the night of Pesach with the words “Avadim Hayinu,” that we were slaves to Paraoh, and then Hashem took us out.
Towards the end of Maggid, we also say a paragraph taken from the Mishna, saying “Bechol Dor Vador Chayav Adam Liros Es Atzmo Ke’ilu Hu Yatza MiMitzrayim” — every person needs to see himself as if he came out of Mitzrayim.
How do we do that?
The Rambam explains that we are supposed to really be able to imagine ourselves as slaves in Mitzrayim. We should think about how hopeless we would feel, how there was so much work and so much pain. Then we should think about how happy we feel that we aren’t slaves stuck in Mitzrayim anymore!
In Tanya, the Alter Rebbe explains that in a deeper way, Yetziyas Mitzrayim isn’t something that just happened more than 3330 years ago far away in a place called Mitzrayim. Every day we are supposed to see ourselves as if we came out of Mitzrayim, because this really happens to us every day!
Our guf is like a Mitzrayim. It makes us stuck, keeps us from doing things we know we should, and tries to get us to do things that aren’t good for our neshama. We can sometimes feel like slaves because of our guf!
But our neshama is NOT stuck. Our neshama is a piece of Hashem and always connected to Hashem! We can take our neshama out of the Golus of the Guf, by making it the most important thing in our life. We do this by showing how we are connected to Hashem through Torah and mitzvos, starting with davening at the beginning of the day. This way, we are really having Yetziyas Mitzrayim every day!
On Pesach we have a mitzvah to really spend time thinking about this, discussing it and reliving it at the seder, which will help us feel this in a stronger way every day of the year!
See Rambam Hilchos Chomeitz U’Matzah perek Zayin, halacha Vov; and Tanya perek Lamed-Alef and Mem-Zayin
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Not having chometz on Pesach is a very serious thing. We are not allowed to even have it lying around the house! This is called “Bal Yeira’eh U’bal Yeimatzeh,” that it can’t be seen or found.
Because of this, we need to search around our entire house to make sure that all of the chometz is taken out. We are careful that not even a little bit of chometz should be found, and spend time before Pesach getting rid of it. We are mevatel any chometz that we don’t find, saying that it is like it is worth nothing and doesn’t count.
But what if we do have real chometz that DOES count to us, like chometz that we want to use after Pesach? We can’t say that it is botul, because it is still important to us! But we can’t keep it, because then we would be doing a very serious aveira, and this chometz would be asur FOREVER to use or eat or sell, even after Pesach!
The Chachomim tell us that this chometz can be sold to a goy. This is called Mechiras Chometz. Because the halachos of selling chometz are very complicated, we don’t do this by ourselves. Instead, we authorize the Rav to sell our chometz for us.
(Some Yidden don’t sell real chometz on Pesach, because there can be questions about if the chometz is counted as being completely sold. The Alter Rebbe taught that we should sell our chometz using an Arev Kablan, a type of guarantor, which makes sure that our chometz IS completely sold! See here for an explanation of how this works.)
Any chometz that we want to be sold should be set aside in a separate area that is closed off. We can close it off by sealing it off or covering it completely with a cover that is tied down. We do not use this area on 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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On the last day of Chodesh Adar, there needs to be an extra-special simcha!
During the whole Chodesh Adar, we have a mitzvah to add in simcha — Marbim Besimcha! Now we are at the highest part, the day of the MOST simcha!
The Rebbe tells that the simcha of Chodesh Adar gives us the koach to bring Moshiach in Chodesh Nisan! Nisan is an especially good time for Geulah, since it was also the month when we had the Geulah from Mitzrayim.
The Chachomim tell us that in Nisan we were freed from the first Golus, and in Nisan we will also be freed from this last Golus! “Benisan Nigalu, Uv’Nisan Asidin Lehiga’el!”
It is the simcha of Chodesh Adar, and especially this last day, that breaks through the rest of Golus and will bring the Geulah with Moshiach Tzidkeinu Bekarov Mamosh!
See Likutei Sichos chelek Daled p. 1274
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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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