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CHUMASH
Parshas Re'eh - Shvi'i with Rashi
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Moshe Rabbeinu is telling the Yidden about more mitzvos they will do in Eretz Yisroel, and reviews the Shalosh Regalim, the three Yomim Tovim where we come to the Beis Hamikdash!
If you have an animal, and it has a firstborn baby, you need to give the baby to the kohen! If the baby has no mum, the kohen will bring it as a korban and eat the meat. If there IS a mum, it can’t be a korban, but the kohen can still have it for himself.
On Pesach, we bring a Korban Pesach! We only eat Matzah the whole Yom Tov long.
We count 7 weeks from the day we cut the Omer, and then it’s Shavuos! On Shavuos we come again to the Beis Hamikdash.
Sukkos we also come to the Beis Hamikdash, and are so happy to be close to Hashem!
When we come three times a year to the Beis Hamikdash, we should bring korbanos to Hashem according to the bracha Hashem gave to us. If Hashem bentched us with a lot, we should bring MANY korbanos!
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In Tehillim, we are saying the first half of the LONGEST kapitel in the whole Tehillim, Kapitel Kuf-Yud-Tes!
One of the pesukim in today’s Tehillim is “Baruch Ata Hashem Lamdeini Chukecha” — “Blessed are You Hashem, teach me Your mitzvos!”
The Shulchan Aruch tells us that if we start saying a bracha and then realize it’s a mistake, we can say the words “Lamdeini Chukecha.” This way we are saying a whole posuk — which we can always say with Hashem’s name — and we will not be saying Chas Veshalom Hashem’s name for no reason!
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TANYA
Igeres Hakodesh Siman Ches
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In many of the letters in Igeres Hakodesh, the Alter Rebbe gives Chassidim a chayus in giving tzedakah, by explaining all of the special things that happen when we give Tzedakah!
In this letter, the Alter Rebbe talks about something special that happens to a Yid when he davens — BECAUSE of his tzedakah! We also learn why we use the mashal of “planting” to understand how tzedakah works.
The Gemara says that R’ Elazar would first give a coin to a poor person, and then he would go to daven. This was based on a posuk from Tehillim: “Ani Betzedek Echzeh Panecha,” “With tzedakah I will see Your face.” Before going to see Hashem’s face in davening, R’ Elazar would first give tzedakah.
What does it mean to “see Hashem’s face” in davening?
We see in today’s Tanya!
In the Ruchnius’dike worlds, like Atzilus and Gan Eden, it is easy to see how Torah and Chassidus are true and make a lot of sense. Down here in the Gashmius world, it is much harder to see.
But during davening, sometimes Hashem gives us a little peek into the way things really are! Hashem might give us a thought or a kavana that helps us realize how Torah and Yiddishkeit are true. This is why davening is called “seeing Hashem’s face,” because we might get a chance to clearly see the way things really are, the way malochim and neshamos can see them! This is a wonderful chesed from Hashem.
In tomorrow’s Tanya, we will learn why we need tzedakah to get this special experience!
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The Rebbe Rashab taught that we say “L’Torah, Le’Chuppah, U’leMaasim Tovim” also for a girl. Today we learn why!
By the bris of a baby boy, we say “Kesheim Shenichnas LaBris, Kein Yikanes LeTorah, LeChuppah, U’leMaasim Tovim” — “just like he was brought into the bris, he should also grow to Torah, to the Chuppah, and to do mitzvos!”
Really, Torah is also part of Maasim Tovim — mitzvos. Because it’s impossible to do these mitzvos unless we learned Torah to know how to do them and to WANT to do them!
When we say “Torah” here, we are talking about the mitzvah of Talmud Torah — to use every possible moment to learn Torah. This is one of the mitzvos that girls and women don’t have to keep, because it would make it harder for them to do their main shlichus as a Jewish woman!
So you would think that for a girl, you should only say the second half of the bracha, “LeChuppah UleMaasim Tovim,” since they are not mechuyav in the mitzvah of Talmud Torah.
But the Rebbeim did say “LeTorah, LeChuppah, U’leMaasim Tovim” for a girl too! Why? Because the Chachomim teach us that a girl has a part in the mitzvah of Talmud Torah. She makes sure that her husband and her sons are doing the mitzvah properly, by sending her husband to go learn Torah and making sure her sons are learning in every free moment!
Then, not only is she doing her shlichus of being the Akeres Habayis, she also takes a part in the mitzvah of Talmud Torah! Because she makes it happen, she also gets a part of the reward for this special mitzvah!
That’s why it is our minhag that when a baby girl is born, we also say L’Torah, L’Chuppah, U’lemaasim Tovim, that she should have the zechus of ALL of these things!
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Today’s mitzvah is that if someone makes a promise and changes their mind, they have to go to a Rav or a Beis Din to take away the promise. This is called Hataras Nedarim.
There are some mitzvos that are only a mitzvah to do if we need to do them. For example, it isn’t a mitzvah to become tomei so we can become tahor through the Parah Adumah, but if someone DOES become tomei, it’s a mitzvah to follow the halachos of how to become tahor again!
This is also that kind of mitzvah: It isn’t a mitzvah to change our mind about a promise, but if someone DOES, they need to follow the halachos of how to take away the promise. For a girl or a woman, her father or husband can take away certain promises (like we learn in Perek Yud-Alef and Yud-Beis of today’s Rambam), and a Rav or Beis Din can be mevatel promises for ANYONE.
We learn this mitzvah from the first aliyah of Parshas Matos. These pesukim teach how a father or husband can take away a neder. The way Chachomim do it is hinted to in the posuk from yesterday’s mitzvah, but the main place we learn it from is Torah Shebaal Peh.
In Gemara, this mitzvah is explained in Mesechta Nedarim.
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more halachos about promises.
Perek Yud: We learn all kinds of halachos about a promise that has to do with time — like if someone makes a promise not to eat fruit for a day, or if the person says that they will save their bananas until it rains.
Perek Yud-Alef: We learn about what happens if a child (boy or girl) makes a promise in the year before their Bar or Bas Mitzvah. If a girl doesn’t live at home, and isn’t married yet, her promise is a promise! (If she does live at home or is married, her father or husband can take away the promise.)
Perek Yud-Beis: We learn about how a father or husband can take away a promise. One interesting halacha is that a father can take away ANY promise, but a husband can only take away a promise that will bother or annoy him or her or make it hard to stay married to his wife. We also learn that he can only take away the promise on the day he hears it — otherwise, the promise stays.
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This perek discusses something called hatmanah, covering a pot to keep it hot on Shabbos. We are not allowed to wrap it fully in something that would add heat (like an electric blanket!) even before Shabbos. On Shabbos, we aren’t even allowed to wrap a pot with something that DOESN’T add heat, because of gezeiros the Chachomim made to keep us far away from doing melacha on Shabbos.
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The chossid R’ Binyomin Kletzker was a businessman who worked with lumber.
Once he sat down to make a cheshbon of how much money he had earned. He calculated the price of each of the forests, the workers who chopped down the trees, the cost of bringing the logs to the marketplace, and how much he earned from each log.
At the end, he added up all of the numbers and wrote down the total: Ain Od Milvado — there is nothing except for Hashem!
What is special about this is that R’ Binyomin wasn’t doing this to teach a lesson to anyone, or to make a cute comment. He was really thinking so much about Hashem all the time that he really felt that at the end, the main thing was not the amount of money. Instead he was thinking about how the whole world is just a part of Hashem and is there so we can make it a Dira for Hashem through learning Torah and doing mitzvos.
See sicha of Parshas Re’eh, 5735
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The eleventh posuk of the Yud-Beis Pesukim starts with the word Vezeh. This posuk comes from the Tanya, and it speaks about the very important shlichus each of us have!
Vezeh Kol Ha’adam — This is what a person’s life is all about!
Vesachlis Briyosav — It is the reason why he was created
Uvriyas Kol Ha’olamos — and the reason all of the worlds were created,
Elyonim Vesachtonim — from the highest Ruchnius worlds and everything in this Gashmius world:
Lihiyos Lo Dira Zu Besachtonim — In order to make this world a home for Hashem!
How do we make the world a home for Hashem?
By learning Torah, doing mitzvos, and sharing the light of Torah and mitzvos with other people!
There are so many things in the world, and many of them look important. But when we think about this posuk, we realize that there is only one thing that is important: Yiddishkeit!
Our Torah learning, doing mitzvos, sharing Yiddishkeit with other people — that is the most important shlichus there could be! That is the reason Hashem created us, and the reason for everything else Hashem created. There is nothing more important!
See Der Rebbe Redt Tzu Kinder vol. 5 p. 260
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Making a promise is a very serious thing. We are not supposed to make a Torah promise unless we absolutely need to. And if we do make a promise, we have to keep it no matter what!
Because of this, the halacha is that when we say we will do something, we clearly say that it is NOT a Torah promise. That’s what the words “Bli Neder” mean, without a promise.
Of course even when we didn’t promise, we still need to try our best to do what we said we would and keep our word, which is also a mitzvah!
See Kitzur Shulchan Aruch Siman Samach-Zayin
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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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Hashem acts in a way of Midah Keneged Midah — based on what we do, that’s how Hashem responds. By us working with zerizus to go out of our Mitzrayim and constantly do more, Hashem will also with zerizus take us out of Golus! Like the Rambam says, the Yidden will do teshuvah in the end of their Golus, and then MIYAD (right away) the Geulah will come!
See sicha of the Rebbe, Yud-Alef Nissan 5744
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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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