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CHUMASH
Parshas Devarim - Chamishi with Rashi
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Moshe reviewed with the Yidden about more of their time in the Midbar. He reminded them about all of the nations they tried to pass through on their way to Eretz Yisroel.
Edom: The Yidden asked Edom (Eisav’s family) if they could go through their land. Edom didn’t want to let the Yidden pass through. Hashem told the Yidden not to fight with them, since He had promised Eisav that he could stay there until Moshiach comes. So they turned around and went to the land of Moav.
Moav: Hashem also told the Yidden not to fight with Moav, from the family of Lot. They were allowed to show they had weapons and scare them, since Moav wasn’t acting the way Hashem wanted.
It took a long time until the Yidden got to the next nation. The Yidden had to travel for 38 years! This way, all of the Yidden who came out of Mitzrayim would pass away, and only their children would go into Eretz Yisroel.
Ammon: Then the Yidden passed near Ammon, also from Lot’s family. To reward Lot’s daughter, the mother of the nation of Ammon, for her tznius, Hashem didn’t even let the Yidden scare them.
Emori: But the Yidden WOULD be allowed to fight with the Emori — where Sichon and Og were the kings. First the Yidden tried to ask them nicely if they could pass through their land, but Sichon said no. (IY”H tomorrow we will review what happened with Sichon in the end!)
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Today’s kapitelach are Yud until Yud-Zayin.
In one of today's Kapitelach, there is a very interesting posuk: “Hashem Tzadik Yivchan.” Hashem tests a tzadik.
This means that Hashem only tests a person if he's like a tzadik — if he has the kochos to do the right thing and pass the test!
So why does Hashem test us if He already KNOWS we can pass?
Hashem knows we have kochos hiding inside of us, but it’s not enough to just HAVE kochos, we have to USE them for Hashem! By testing us, we need to use those kochos to pass the test, and then we’re using all of our kochos for Hashem!
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TANYA
Igeres Hateshuvah Perek Yud-Beis
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Even a Yid who did an aveira and then does Teshuvah needs to always be besimcha!
When he’s doing the part of teshuvah where he thinks about the aveiros he did (Teshuva Tata’ah) he needs to be happy because he knows that Hashem for sure forgives him! And when he’s doing mitzvos with a new special chayus (Teshuva Ila’ah) then for sure he needs to be besimcha that he is able to become so close to Hashem through Torah, mitzvos, and Avodas HaTefillah!
When something uncomfortable happens (yisurim) because of a person’s aveiros, the Alter Rebbe tells us today that he needs to be happy! Why?
When a Yid does an aveira, the neshama becomes “dirty.” Just like with our clothes, no one wants to go around with dirty ones — we put them in the washing machine to get clean! The same is true with our neshamos: Since aveiros can make them dirty, we need to make them clean. Scrubbing something dirty from our skin might be uncomfortable. The same way, taking away the aveiros can also be not comfortable.
There are two choices of when to do the “washing” and the “scrubbing” of our neshama: Here, in Olam Hazeh, or in Olam HaBa. If Hashem makes a person feel uncomfortable because his neshama is getting clean in THIS world, he needs to be very happy! Because THIS world is a world of Chesed, kindness. So the kind of cleaning HERE is much easier (no matter how hard it seems) than the kind of washing and cleaning in Olam HaBa!
The Torah tells us of a person named Iyov who had a very hard life. The Ramban tells us in his introduction to Sefer Iyov that all of the hard things in Iyov’s entire life don’t even compare to how hard it is for a neshama to get clean in Olam Haba for one hour!
That’s why the Alter Rebbe tells we should be happy if we have yisurim, uncomfortable things that happen to us in Olam Hazeh, because it is a very good thing for our neshama.
Mazel Tov! We now finished the third Sefer of Tanya! In this section we learned how a Yid does teshuvah according to halacha, and the two kinds of teshuvah in Ruchnius — Teshuvah Tata’ah and Teshuvah Ila’ah, which we can understand in our mind and heart, and give us a chayus in the mitzvah of teshuvah.
We learned that in all parts of teshuvah a Yid needs to be besimcha!
The Rebbe would quote the words of the Rambam many times, that when Yidden do Teshuvah, Moshiach will come right away. Now that we finished learning Igeres HaTeshuvah, may we be zocheh to see this fulfilled right away!
Since the Rebbe told us that we need to make siyumim during the Nine Days, Chitas is helping us to make a siyum on a sefer in Tanya — right in the beginning of the Nine Days!
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Today we learn about our minhag of putting on tefillin to get ready for the Bar Mitzvah.
Our minhag is that a Bar Mitzvah boy practices putting on Tefillin for two months BEFORE his Bar Mitzvah. At first he just gets used to putting them on right, then in a few weeks when he is comfortable putting them on, he starts to say a bracha.
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SEFER HAMITZVOS
Shiur #89 - Mitzvas Lo Saasei #340, #341, #342, #343, #344, #345
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Today we learn even more mitzvos about which relatives a person is not allowed to get married to:
1) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #340) A person can’t get married to his aunt on his father’s side.
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Acharei: עֶרְוַת אֲחוֹת אָבִיךָ לֹא תְגַלֵּה
2) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #341) He can’t get married to his aunt on his mother’s side.
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Acharei: עֶרְוַת אֲחוֹת אִמְּךָ לֹא תְגַלֵּה
3) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #342) He can’t get married to his uncle’s wife (his father’s brother’s wife).
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Acharei: אֶל אִשְׁתּוֹ לֹא תִקְרָב דֹּדָתְךָ הִוא
4) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #343) He can’t get married to his daughter-in-law (his son’s wife).
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Acharei: עֶרְוַת כַּלָּתְךָ לֹא תְגַלֵּה
5) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #344) He can’t get married to his sister-in-law (his brother’s wife) while his brother is alive.
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Acharei: עֶרְוַת אֵשֶׁת אָחִיךָ לֹא תְגַלֵּה
6) (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #345) He can’t get married to his sister-in-law (his wife’s sister) while his wife is alive.
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Acharei: וְאִשָּׁה אֶל אֲחֹתָהּ לֹא תִקָּח
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Today’s Rambam, Perakim Vov, Zayin, and Ches, has many halachos about Taharas Hamishpacha — making sure that a Yid’s marriage is tahor.
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Even though there are other ways to make a color that LOOKS like techeiles, only real techeiles will stay the same color no matter what. So to check if a string was dyed with real techeiles, we soak it in a strong liquid to see if the color fades! Only real techeiles is kosher for tzitzis.
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In Musaf of the Yom Tov davening, we say “Mipnei Chato’einu Golinu Me’artzeinu” — we went into Golus because of our aveiros. This shows us that there is something that makes the Golus happen. This is called a siba, a cause. Our aveiros are the siba that brings the Golus.
Hashem made the world in a way that one thing can make another thing happen, called Siba Umesuvav (cause and effect). If we take away the siba, the mesuvav goes away too!
How does that work?
Well, imagine that you are standing near the wall, when someone accidentally steps on your toe. Ouch! That hurts!
Their standing on you is the siba, and your toe hurting is the mesuvav. If they take away the siba, by moving their foot off of your toe, the mesuvav will also go away — your toe will stop hurting. And even if they just take their foot off a little bit, your toe won’t hurt as much!
The Torah teaches us that the Golus is just a mesuvav, it only is there because something is making it happen. If we take away the siba that is making the Golus happen, the Golus will go away!
So especially now, during the Nine Days, when we think about the Golus and the Churban, we should work very hard on taking away the siba for the Golus!
What is the siba for the Golus? Our aveiros, especially Sinas Chinam, hating other people for no reason.
When we take away this siba as much as we can, by doing extra mitzvos and having Ahavas Yisroel, that takes away at least part of the Golus! We might not see it clearly right away, but the Golus starts to get weaker, until we finally have the Geulah Sheleimah!
See Igros Kodesh chelek Chof-Gimmel, Three Weeks
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The fourth posuk of the Yud-Beis Pesukim starts with the words “Kol Yisrael.” It is a Mishna in Sanhedrin, and we say it before each perek of Pirkei Avos.
This posuk speaks about how special Yidden are!
Kol Yisrael — Every single Yid
Yeish Lahem Chelek Le’olam Haba — will be part of Techiyas Hameisim, which is also called Olam Haba.
Shene’emar — Like the Navi Yeshaya says,
Ve’ameich Kulam Tzadikim — “The nation of Yidden, who are all tzadikim,
L’olam Yirshu Aretz — deserve to have Olam Haba as a yerusha forever.
Neitzer Mata’ai, Maasei Yadai — They are like a branch that Hashem planted, the work of Hashem,
Lehispa’er — and Hashem is proud of them.”
IY”H we will learn more about what this posuk means, and the important lessons even children could learn from it!
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During the Nine Days, we don’t eat meat or drink wine.
One of the reasons why is because meat and wine bring a person simcha! During the Nine Days we are sad about the Beis Hamikdash, and don’t do certain things that usually make us happy.
Another reason why we don’t eat meat or drink wine is to remind ourselves that we are missing the meat of the korbanos, and the wine that was poured on the Mizbeiach.
The halacha is that we don’t eat actual meat or food that has the flavor of the meat, like chicken soup. But it isn’t a problem to eat food that was cooked in a fleishige pot, or to eat food where there was meat that became botul or it doesn’t make the food taste like meat. (For example, we would be allowed to eat a vegetable soup that has a few pieces of onion that were fried in shmaltz instead of oil, as long as it is doesn’t make the whole soup taste like chicken soup.)
If wine was used in cooking, it is also fine as long as it was botul. Wine vinegar isn’t considered like wine at all, and we can use it for cooking during the Nine Days.
But if someone has a bris or a Pidyon Haben during the Nine Days, we DO eat fleishigs!
Based on “Day by Day” halacha newsletter by Rabbi Sholom Osdoba, downloadable at Halochos.com
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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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Yechezkel Hanavi said a nevuah that all of Bnei Yisrael will become reunited under one king again when Moshiach comes! For many generations, since after Shlomo Hamelech was king, the Yidden were split up into two separate kingdoms. But when Moshiach comes, we will all again be ruled by just one Jewish king.
The posuk (as we learned yesterday) says, “Ve’avdi Dovid Melech Aleihem,” that Dovid Hamelech will rule over them. This is talking about Moshiach, who will be king over ALL of the Yidden.
Why is Moshiach called Dovid, though?
The Frierdiker Rebbe explains in a maamar that the name Dovid is a name of bittul and being humble. We see this in Tehillim, where Dovid Hamelech, even though he was the king, calls himself a poor man (oni v’evyon)!
Moshiach will also have this inyan of Dovid, of being humble. Moshiach will teach the greatest leaders of the Yidden, like the Avos and Moshe Rabbeinu! At the same time, he will teach the simplest Yidden Torah too.
The Rebbe explains in a maamar that in order to have the special inyan of Moshiach’s bittul which we will have when Moshiach comes, we need to do something differently now! Everything that happens when Moshiach will come is from what we do now during Golus.
So how do we get this? By spreading Yiddishkeit and Chassidus in a humble way. Even though when we teach other people, Hashem makes us smarter, and our heart becomes more pure, that shouldn’t be the reason why we teach. We shouldn’t be thinking about what WE will be getting from spreading Yiddishkeit, we should think about how it will help the person we are teaching! Being humble in that way will make us deserve to have Moshiach, with his tremendous bittul.
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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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