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CHUMASH
Parshas Acharei-Kedoshim - Shlishi with Rashi
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Yesterday we learned that the Yidden are not allowed to shecht a korban outside of the Mishkan or Beis Hamikdash. Today, the posuk adds that burning the korban outside of the Mishkan or Beis Hamikdash is another aveira.
We also learn about the punishment for eating blood. We are not allowed to eat blood, because the chayus of a living thing is in its blood. This is also why we need to cover the blood of animal when we shecht it (“Kisui Hadam”).
If someone eats a kosher bird that wasn’t shechted properly, he becomes tomei and his clothes become tomei, too. He is not allowed to eat from korbanos or go into the Beis Hamikdash until he goes himself into the mikvah, and dips his clothing into the mikvah too.
Now Hashem tells the Yidden to remember about Hashem, and not to act like the Mitzriyim, who didn’t know that getting married is holy! The Torah will give us rules about who we can marry.
We also learn from these pesukim that Yidden need to behave differently than the other nations (“Uvechukoseihem Lo Seileichu”). We need to be dedicated to learning Hashem’s Torah and doing His mitzvos.
Since we are Hashem’s holy nation, we need to remember that getting married is a very holy thing! Hashem gives us very specific rules about getting married.
Even though before Matan Torah it was fine to marry close relatives, now it is not allowed anymore.
- A person can’t marry his mother or stepmother
- He can’t marry his sister or stepsister
- He can’t marry his grandchildren
- He can’t marry his aunt
- He can’t marry his daughter-in-law
- He can’t marry a woman and her daughter
- He can’t marry two sisters
- He needs to act differently with a woman who has Tumas Niddah
- He can’t get married to a woman who is married to someone else
Hashem also tells us NOT to do the Avodah Zarah of Molech.
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In today’s Tehillim, there are two pesukim (Kapitel Chof-Hey, pesukim ches and tes) that talk about how Hashem shows us the right way to live. The last words of these pesukim are “VeYelamed Anavim Darko” — Hashem teaches humble people His path.
The Rambam says that this is talking about two things that Hashem gives to Yidden to help them do teshuvah and do the right things:
1) He sends them Neviim (and Rebbeim) who teach them the ways of Hashem and how to do teshuva, and
2) Hashem makes a person WANT to do the right thing when they learn about it.
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Mem-Daled
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We learned about two kinds of Ahavas Hashem that every Yid can have. One is to love Hashem because Hashem gives us our chayus, and the other is to love Hashem like a son loves his father.
One of the ways to bring out this ahava is not just to think about it with our minds, but also to use the special koach which is in our voice (like when we speak about how Hashem is the source of our chayus, in Pesukei Dezimra; or that Hashem is our father, in the bracha before Shema). Saying the words together with the kavana will help the kavana be more real to us!
Today the Alter Rebbe tells us that even if it seems like we’re pretending that we love Hashem, we should do this anyway!
Why?
Because in truth EVERY Yid really loves Hashem inside his neshama! By saying it with our voice and our kavana, we are bringing it out so it will help us do our Torah and mitzvos with the kavana of bringing Hashem nachas, like a son serving his father.
In fact, we are doing the mitzvos to give Hashem TWO kinds of nachas!
1) Our mitzvos make Hashem happy like a king whose son just came out of jail. Our neshama is in Golus in the Gashmius of the world, and when we daven and learn Torah and do mitzvos, our neshama is coming back to Hashem!
2) Hashem also has nachas that now He has a Dira BeTachtonim, a comfortable place in the world because of the mitzvos we did. Now we’re bringing the Geulah in the world!
Even if we aren’t thinking these kavanos while we’re doing the mitzvos, Hashem will connect our mitzvos to the time we thought about it. It is counted as a kind of Ahavas Hashem. That way our mitzvos will have wings to fly up to Hashem!
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Today is nineteen days of the Omer!
It is a Yiddishe minhag not to cut a boy’s hair until he turns three. We then cut his hair for the first time, called an upshernish.
The main reason for this minhag is so that we can show him that we are NOT cutting his peyos!
After the upshernish, we make sure that the boy gets used to wearing tzitzis, saying brachos in the morning, bentching, and saying Shema before going to sleep.
In a sicha, the Rebbe says that the time of the upshernish is only a deadline when we MUST start to teach a child, but we don’t have to wait until then! We should start as soon as possible.
Also, the same way that girls become Bas Mitzvah a year earlier, girls’ chinuch should start earlier too.
Even though we are now in the middle of Sefiras Haomer and can’t make an upshernish until Lag B’Omer, if a boy turns three during Sefira, we still make sure to start all of the other parts of Chinuch right away! We make sure the upshernish boy wears a yarmulka and tzitzis, even before his hair is cut!
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Today’s Sefer Hamitzvos is (Mitzvas Asei #222) that if chas veshalom a man and woman can’t be married anymore, the husband has to give his wife a get. (A get is a document that shows that they are not married anymore.)
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Ki Seitzei: וְכָתַב לָהּ סֵפֶר כְּרִיתֻת וְנָתַן בְּיָדָהּ
The details are explained in Mesechta Gittin.
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RAMBAM
Hilchos Ishus - Gerushin
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In today’s Rambam, we learn many halachos about a get. There are many details in writing and giving a get in a kosher way.
One interesting halacha is that there needs to be witnesses for the get. They have to sign their names on the get. But what if they don’t know how to write? We can write their names with water on the paper, and they can trace over it. Usually this isn’t a kosher way for eidim (witnesses) to sign, but it is okay for a get because we want to make sure that the woman can get married again.
Another very important halacha is that a man needs to WANT to give the get. If he doesn’t want to, but he needs to, the Beis Din is allowed to force him until he says “I want to!”
But if you force someone until they say yes, they don’t really want it!
The Rambam tells us that really EVERY Yid wants to do all the mitzvos. Sometimes our Yetzer Haras trick us and try to get us not to do the right thing, but really we DO want to do the right thing. When the Beis Din forces the man, his Yetzer Hara becomes weak, and what the Yid really wants comes out! He realizes that he DOES want to do the mitzvah and give the get like the Torah tells him to.
The Rebbe would repeat this halacha often, to show that every Yid deep down really wants to do all of the mitzvos!
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There are 10 things that Tefillin need to have in order to be kosher. (Many of these halachos are also for mezuzos and Sifrei Torah, which is why these halachos are all in the same set of halachos.) The first two are about how they are made:
1) They need to be written with ink: We make ink by mixing soot from burning candles with sap and honey, crushing it into powder, and drying it. We mix it with a liquid (like gallnut juice) and write with that. The ink has to be BLACK — if even one letter is written in another color, even gold, they are posul!
2) They have to be written on parchment: Parchment is made from the skin of an animal, which we soak to make it get smaller and harder. Once it is ready, it is called g’vil. G’vil can be separated into two parts — klaf (the outside part touching the hair of the animal) and duchsustos (the inside part touching the meat). It is best to write a Sefer Torah on g’vil, a mezuzah on duchsustos, and Tefillin on klaf. (Nowadays, we only use g’vil, with some of the top and most of the bottom rubbed off. This makes it a lighter color.)
The Rambam also teaches us about the kavana the sofer needs to have when he is writing. If he writes Hashem’s name without thinking about the kedusha of Hashem, the whole thing is posul!
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Did you ever learn about manners, or being polite? Not only Yidden try to act with proper manners, but for a Yid it’s extra important.
A person might think, “It doesn’t matter so much if I speak politely to other people or not, all that counts is how I feel about them INSIDE!”
But the truth is that the way we talk makes us feel different inside. If we speak in a polite way to other people, we’ll start feeling nicer feelings to them too.
Also, when we act with good manners, we are making a Kiddush Hashem for the people that see us!
That is one of the ways that we use the midah of Tiferes, the midah that we are working on now in Sefiras Haomer. Tiferes means beauty. We need to act in a way that people will be able to see how beautifully Yidden who are connected to Torah and mitzvos behave!
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TEFILLAH
Two Kinds of Needs - Shemoneh Esrei
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The Chachomim put together Shemoneh Esrei as the main part of each tefillah. In Shemoneh Esrei, we ask Hashem for all of our needs.
Here is how the brachos of Shemoneh Esrei are organized:
- The first three and last three brachos of Shemoneh Esrei are praise and thanks TO Hashem.
- The middle 12 (now 13) brachos are what we ask FROM Hashem.
These middle brachos are split up into two sections as well:
- First, we ask for our personal needs. These are the first six of the middle brachos. We are asking Hashem for the things we need for ourselves, like sechel, health and parnasa, and a personal Geulah from the things that bother us from living the way a Yid should.
- Then, we ask for what we need for all Yidden together, in the other six middle brachos.
What do we need for all Yidden together? We ask Hashem to bring back the Yidden to the way things used to be, so that we can again fulfill all of the mitzvos properly in Eretz Yisroel. In these brachos, we ask Hashem to bring the Geulah for all the Yidden! In other words, these brachos ask Hashem to bring Moshiach!
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Things that aren’t meant to be used on Shabbos are muktza.
There are different reasons why something isn’t meant to be used. If we don’t expect to use something on Shabbos because it is something important or expensive that we are very careful with, it is called Muktza Machmas Chesron Kis.
For example, a wrapped wedding present is this kind of muktza. You are planning on giving it to someone as a gift, so you are careful not to ruin it!
Another example is a Shochet’s knife. A shochet spends a lot of time making sure his knife is very very sharp, and he wouldn’t use it for anything else!
Another example of Muktza Machmas Chesron Kis is a birth certificate. It is a very important piece of paper that people are very careful with.
This type of muktza is Muktza Chamur, a strict kind of muktza. We are not allowed to move these things on Shabbos, even if we want to use them for something we ARE allowed to do, or if they are in a space we wanted to use (Letzorech Gufo or Letzorech Mekomo).
See the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, siman Shin-Ches
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לעילוי נשמת הרה״ח ר׳ דניאל יצחק בן ר׳ אפרים ע״ה מאסקאוויץ
שליח כ"ק אדמו"ר נשיא דורנו למדינת אילינוי
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The Rebbe shows us an important halacha that the Rambam teaches about asking for Moshiach!
The Rambam tells us that nine Parah Adumahs were brought until the end of the second Beis Hamikdash. The first one was brought by Moshe Rabbeinu, the second one by Ezra Hasofer, and 7 more in the time of the second Beis Hamikdash. The tenth one will be brought by Moshiach!
Right after saying this, the Rambam adds the words “Meheira Yigaleh Amen Kein Yehi Ratzon” — “Moshiach should immediately be revealed.” The Rebbe tells us that the Rambam here is teaching us a very important halacha: We should want Moshiach so much that even if we’re talking about something else, if we mention Moshiach we should right away daven that he should come!
Even though the Rambam doesn’t say this EVERY time he speaks about Moshiach in his sefer, still at least one time in the Mishnah Torah, he shows us that when you speak about Moshiach, you need to ask for Moshiach to come.
See Likutei Sichos chelek Chof-Ches, parshas Chukas; and Chof Cheshvan Tof-Shin-Mem-Vov
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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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