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CHUMASH
Parshas Chukas-Balak - Revi'i with Rashi
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Today we learn about how the Yidden captured the lands of Sichon and Og, the kings of the Emori. We also start to learn about Balak and Bilaam.
Hashem already killed many of the Emori who wanted to hurt the Yidden, but there are still 2 kings of the Emori — Sichon and Og. Hashem had told Moshe to fight Sichon, but first Moshe asked their permission to go through to Eretz Yisroel.
But Sichon said NO! He wanted to fight.
The Emorim were very strong, and it would be hard to fight them in their cities. So Hashem gave Sichon an idea to all go into the desert to fight the Yidden! There, the Yidden fought and fought! Hashem made the sun not go down so the Yidden could finish the war. The Yidden won, and now all of the Emori land belonged to them.
The Shevatim of Reuven and Gad decided to live there, in the land of the Emori which would now be part of Eretz Yisroel!
Really, the land where Sichon lived used to belong to Moav, but Sichon hired a non-Jewish navi, Bilaam, to curse the city so he could win it.
Moshe sent men to go be spies and look at a place called Yazer, that wasn’t part of Sichon’s land. These spies wanted to do teshuvah for the Meraglim, so they didn’t just spy. They actually fought and even won over Yazer right away, and sent away the Emorim who lived there!
Now the Yidden went to fight against Og and take the rest of the land of the Emorim. At first Moshe was afraid because Og had helped Avraham, maybe he deserved to win! But Hashem told Moshe not to worry.
Og picked up a mountain that was as big as the entire place where the Yidden were camped! He wanted to kill them all at once. Because he wanted to do this, he lost all of his zechus. Hashem made ants make a big hole in the mountain, and it got stuck on his head! Then Moshe took a big axe, jumped very high, and hit Og in his ankle. Og fell down, and died from the mountain. Now the Yidden killed the rest of Og’s sons and took over the rest of the land of the Emorim.
Now the Yidden were right across the Yarden river from Yericho, a city in Eretz Yisroel!
Balak scares Moav: Even though Moav told the Yidden they aren’t allowed to come through, they weren’t afraid that the Yidden would fight them. They knew that Hashem didn’t promise the Yidden to get the land of Moav, so the Yidden would have no reason to attack them.
But Balak ben Tzipor, from Midyan, scared them! He told them that the Yidden could fight them just like they fought with the Emori kings, Sichon and Og. Now Moav was very scared that the Yidden would come in and take whatever they wanted from them! They were so scared that they made shalom with Midyan, who were their enemies, and made Balak their king to help them!
Since the koach of the Yidden was from Hashem, Balak knew that it wouldn’t help to get a big army. They needed to find someone with ruchnius kochos! So he sent a messenger to Bilaam ben Beor, who was famous for cursing people and also was a Navi. He asked Bilaam to curse the Yidden so that they won’t come into the land of Moav.
Even though Bilaam was a Navi of the goyim, and knew that the Yidden wouldn’t do anything to Moav, he hated the Yidden so much that he WANTED to curse them! He told the messengers to wait because he only got nevuah at night. (When Hashem lets a non-Jew be a Navi, He doesn’t do it in a kavodike way, and also only at night.)
At night, Hashem asked Bilaam, “Who is with you?” Of course Hashem really knew who was with him! He was asking only to “start the conversation,” like He did with Adam Harishon.
Bilaam thought that Hashem didn’t always know what was happening! He decided to curse the Yidden when Hashem “wasn’t looking.”
Bilaam told Hashem that Balak wanted him to curse the Yidden. Hashem told him not to go. Bilaam asked if he could curse them from Midyan, but Hashem said no! Bilaam then asked if at least he could bless the Yidden, but Hashem said no — the Yidden don’t need his brachos!
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Today’s kapitelach are Mem-Tes to Nun-Daled.
In today’s Tehillim, there is a posuk that says “Avon Akeivai Yesubeini” — “the aveiros of my heels surround me.” Dovid Hamelech was saying that he’s not worried that he’s not keeping the “big” mitzvos that are written in the Torah or taught by the Chachomim, he’s worried that the “small” mitzvos — even though he’s keeping them — might not be kept carefully.
The Rebbe teaches: When we say this in Tehillim, we are also talking about our own mitzvos. Of course we are doing mitzvos — like keeping Shabbos and davening — and even being very careful with them. But we need to be worried about the “small” mitzvos, our Chassidishe Hanhagos — like saying Chitas or having Ahavas Yisroel for a Yid we never met, since we might not be doing these as carefully.
We need be careful with ALL of our mitzvos, the “big” ones AND the “little” ones!
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TANYA
Igeres Hateshuvah Perek Beis
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When a person does teshuvah, he is forgiven for his aveira. But to be as close to Hashem as he was before the aveira, he needs to give Hashem a present.
We said that the mitzvah of teshuvah is to make a hachlata to ONLY act the way Hashem wants, and of course not to do the same aveira again!
This is real teshuvah — it works! Hashem will forgive him! Hashem won’t see any aveiros in a time when the person is judged. BUT, he still isn’t as close to Hashem as he was before.
Let’s say there are two friends, Zelig and Laibel. One day, Laibel hears Zelig saying something not nice about him. When Zelig realizes what he did, he says sorry and asks for forgiveness right away! But are they best friends again? Not yet. When Zelig gives Laibel a present to show how much he wants to be friends, they are best friends again.
In the times of the Beis Hamikdash, after someone did teshuvah, he brought Hashem a present — a korban! This way Hashem would love him like He loved him before he did the aveira.
But what kind of present can we give now, when we don’t have the Beis Hamikdash? A person can fast. Fasting is like a korban, because we lose some of what would be in our stomach, like a korban, where part of the animal is burned on the Mizbeiach.
The Arizal taught his Talmidim all about fasting instead of bringing a korban. He had a list of how many times a person should fast for different kinds of aveiros.
We don’t give Hashem this present nowadays either, later we’ll see why and what we do instead!
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Today we learn a good eitzah of what to do when parents need help with their children.
A Mommy and Tatty can sometimes have a very hard problem: Chas veshalom something might be not going so well for one of their kinderlach! Maybe one of them is not acting so nicely in school anymore, or maybe one isn’t feeling so good.
What should they do?
Today the Rebbe tells us: The best thing a Mommy and Tatty can do is to give tzedakah to help people to learn Torah. Then Hashem will help them, and things will become better.
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Today’s mitzvah is the same as yesterday’s (Mitzvas Asei #59) to blow trumpets at certain times. We blow them when we bring the special korbanos of Yom Tov, a happy time. We also blow them in a sad time — when we are davening to Hashem because hard things are happening. They can remind us that it’s from Hashem, and we have to do teshuvah.
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Behaalosecha: וּבְיוֹם שִׂמְחַתְכֶם וּבְמוֹעֲדֵיכֶם וּבְרָאשֵׁי חָדְשֵׁיכֶם וּתְקַעְתֶּם בַּחֲצֹצְרֹת
The details are explained in Sifri, Mesechta Rosh Hashana, and Mesechta Taanis.
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Today’s Rambam, perakim Beis, Gimmel and Daled, talks about many not good things that can happen to Yidden.
When certain types of things happen, like if rain doesn’t fall, the Chachomim ask all of the Yidden to fast and to teshuvah, so Hashem will have rachmonus on us and stop them from happening.
Even though nowadays we don’t do most of the fasts the Rambam speaks about, we still have to do teshuvah if we see something not good happen. We should try to find something special that we can do help the bad thing go away and to bring the Geulah faster!
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more halachos about davening. We learn 8 things a person should try to do (lechatchilah) when they daven Shmoneh Esrei, the main part of davening:
1) We should be standing up
2) We should face the Beis Hamikdash (for most of us, that’s Mizrach)
3) Our body should be clean for davening
4) Our clothes should be neat, and we should wear shoes
5) We should prepare a proper place, for example to always daven in the same place
6) We say Shmoneh Esrei quietly
7) We bow in certain places in Shmoneh Esrei
8) We bow after Shmoneh Esrei when we say Tachanun
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In the entire Chumash, we find two places where the Yidden sang shirah, a song to praise Hashem. One of them is at the time of Kriyas Yam Suf, and the other is in our parsha, where the Yidden praised Hashem for the neis in saving them from the Emoriim.
Why are these the only places where the Yidden sang shirah? Didn’t Hashem save the Yidden many more times, and do many more nisim?
The answer is that with these two nissim, the Yidden were able to see Hashem’s love for them much more clearly. This made them feel a matching love for Hashem, and they sang to Hashem to show how much they loved Him!
At the time of Kriyas Yam Suf, Hashem told the Yidden they wouldn’t need to fight, and the Mitzriyim would not be able to hurt them. Seeing how Hashem took care of them without them needing to do anything showed Hashem’s special love!
In our parsha too, the Yidden saw Hashem’s special love in the way they were saved from the Emoriim. Not only did they not need to fight, they didn’t even need to worry about the Emoriim — they only found out about the neis afterwards! This woke up the Yidden’s strong love for Hashem, and they sang shirah to thank Hashem for this incredible neis.
See Dvar Malchus parshas Chukas p. 53, from Likutei Sichos 23 p. 153
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Between Pesukei Dezimra and the next part of davening, Birchos Kriyas Shema, the Chazan says a Kaddish. There are many types of Kaddish, but the first half is the same for all of them. The main part of this is when everyone says “Yehei Shmei Rabah Mevorach,” Hashem’s name should be blessed.
The Gemara tells a story that shows that when we answer Amen Yehei Shmei Rabah to Kaddish in shul, it brings Hashem a lot of nachas!
The Tanna R’ Yosi was once traveling. On his way, he passed some of the destroyed houses of Yerushalayim. He went into one of them to daven.
Eliyahu Hanavi waited for R’ Yosi at the door. After R’ Yosi finished davening and came outside, Eliyahu Hanavi greeted him. He asked why R’ Yosi had gone into such a dangerous place. R’ Yosi answered that he was looking for a quiet place to daven. Eliyahu Hanavi told him that it is better to daven a short tefillah on the road so nobody will interrupt you, and not to go into a dangerous place.
After teaching him this, Eliyahu Hanavi asked R’ Yosi what he had heard when he was in the ruined house.
R’ Yosi answered that he heard a voice, cooing like a dove. It said, “How sad it is for the children (the Yidden)! Because of their aveiros, I destroyed My home (Yerushalayim), burned My Heichal (the Beis Hamikdash), and sent them into Golus among the nations!”
Eliyahu Hanavi told him, “I promise you that the Shechinah did not only say this when you were inside the ruined home. The Shechinah cries this way three times during each day!
“And when Yidden say ‘Yehei Shmei Rabah Mevorach,’ that Hashem’s great Name should be blessed, it is like Hashem nods His head! Hashem says, ‘Happy is the king who is praised this way in his home.’ It would be so happy for Hashem to be praised this way in His Beis Hamikdash.
“Hashem continues, ‘How terrible it is for the father who sends away his sons, and how terrible for the sons who were sent away from their father’s table.’ It is so sad for Hashem Who sent away His children, the Yidden, and so sad for the Yidden who were sent away from Yerushalayim.”
When we answer Yehei Shmei Rabah Mevorach, it reminds Hashem how nice it would be to again have the Beis Hamikdash, and makes Hashem feel bad about the Yidden being in Golus!
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Imagine that Ploni is in school. He is in a bad mood, and is angry at all of the teachers. He decides to take a marker and write on the wall that he hates school.
Is Ploni allowed to do that?
No! Ruining something that belongs to another person is just like stealing. We are not allowed to ruin or break something that isn’t ours — even if we plan on paying them back afterwards.
See Shulchan Aruch, Dinei Nizkei Mamon, se’if 1
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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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In Parshas Balak, Bilaam says a nevuah about the Yidden. The Rambam in the halachos about Moshiach (Hilchos Melachim) writes that this is a nevuah about Dovid Hamelech, who brought a Geulah for his generation. It is also a nevuah about Melech HaMoshiach, who will bring the final Geulah to the whole world!
This nevuah is very special, but one thing is strange. This nevuah is one of the most important nevuos about Moshiach — and it was said by a goy! All of the other nevuos about Moshiach were said by the greatest Yidden!
The Rebbe explains that this is what Moshiach is all about! When Moshiach comes, everyone will serve Hashem — even the goyim. The goyim will realize that Hashem is the ruler of the entire world, and will respect Hashem’s nation, the Yidden.
So not only does Bilaam’s nevuah help us understand Moshiach, it even lets us TASTE the time of Moshiach! We can have a “taste” of how the world will be when Moshiach comes from this nevuah. We see in the nevuah of Bilaam how the whole world, even a goy, is there to help Yidden in our shlichus to make the world a Dira Betachtonim.
See sefer Pninei Geulah, from Likutei Sichos chelek 23 Balak Alef
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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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