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CHUMASH
Parshas Vayechi - Revi'i with Rashi
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In today’s Chumash, we start to learn the words Yaakov says to the Shevatim before he passes away.
Yaakov called his sons together to tell them when the final Geulah will come. But Hashem didn’t want the Yidden to know, so Hashem took away his Ruach Hakodesh about this. But Yaakov still had his Ruach Hakodesh in other things, and he decided to say something else to each one of the Shevatim:
“Reuven, even though you are the firstborn, some of the things that are supposed to be given to the oldest will not be given to you, because of a certain thing you did with anger. Yosef will become the shevet which will be counted as two shevatim, the Kehunah will go to Shevet Levi, and the Yiddishe kings will come from Shevet Yehuda.
“Shimon and Levi, you worked together for not good things — like killing the people of Shechem, and selling Yosef. Fighting is for Esav, not for children of Yaakov! So you will be separated and spread out: Levi will not be counted together with the other Shevatim, and he won’t get a piece of Eretz Yisroel. Shevet Shimon will be spread out in different places, being beggars, sofrim and teachers in many different parts of the land. The Kohanim and Leviim will have to live in different places around the country, and go to collect the presents given to them by Yidden all over.”
Yehuda was afraid Yaakov would also say what he did wrong, but Yaakov said, “Yehuda, your brothers will all talk about how special you are! The Yiddishe kings (like Dovid Hamelech and Shlomo Hamelech) will come from your family, and later the people who lead the Yidden in Golus, like the Sanhedrin, and even Moshiach!
“This is because you had a lot of Ahavas Yisroel, saving Yosef and Tamar from being killed!
“Zevulun will live near the water, and their ships will buy and sell things. Part of the money they get will pay for the Talmidei Chachomim of Shevet Yissachar to be able to learn Torah!
“Yissachar will be strong and able to learn a lot of Torah! They will work hard in their learning and it will help all of the Yidden.
“Dan will take revenge on the enemies of the Yidden!” Yaakov was speaking with Ruach Hakodesh about Shimshon who in the future will knock down a building and kill many Pelishtim who were making trouble for the Yidden. Yaakov knew that Shimshon would need Hashem’s help, so he asked for it now! “Lishuas’cha Kivisi Hashem” — “Hashem, I am waiting for your yeshuah!”
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Today’s Tehillim is kapitelach Samach through Samach-Hey.
In Kapitel Samach-Daled, Dovid Hamelech davens for Daniel to be saved when he is thrown into the lions’ den. Of course, Daniel (who came from the family of Dovid) wasn’t even born yet, but Dovid Hamelech saw with Ruach Hakodesh that Daniel would need these tefillos!
The story happened after the Churban of the first Beis Hamikdash, in the times of King Daryavesh of Persia, soon after he took over Bavel. Since King Daryavesh knew that Daniel was very smart, he wanted to make him in charge of the whole kingdom of Bavel! When the other officers found out about this, they got very jealous. They decided to make a plan that would force the king to kill Daniel.
So they told King Daryavesh to make a new decree: Nobody would be allowed to daven or ask for anything, except from the king, for one month. Anyone who was caught davening, to Hashem or to an Avodah Zarah, would be thrown into a cage with hungry lions! They knew that Daniel would never listen to such a decree.
Of course, Daniel ignored this new decree. He went to daven, three times a day, like he always did.
The officers were very excited when they caught him, and told King Daryavesh that Daniel had to be punished. The king was not very happy about this, but he was forced to follow the decree that he had made. He told Daniel, “May Hashem, Who you always daven to, save you!”
And Hashem did! Even though the lions were very hungry, they didn’t touch Daniel all night. In the morning, King Daryavesh came to the lions’ den. He called out to Daniel, asking if Hashem had been able to save him. Daniel told the king that Hashem had sent malochim to keep the lions’ mouths closed, and he wasn’t hurt at all!
When the king saw this neis, he decided to instead throw those officers into the lions’ den, and Daniel was saved.
We know one of the reasons why Daniel was saved: Because of the tefillos of Dovid Hamelech, which were said many many years before, in today’s Tehillim, Kapitel Samach-Daled!
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TANYA
Likutei Amarim Perek Yud
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In today’s Tanya, we learn about the level of a Tzadik She’aino Gamur.
We learned that every Yid has a battle going on inside of him, between the two nefashos! The Nefesh Elokis and the Nefesh Habehamis are fighting to be in control of the person.
We learned about all of the tools that the Nefesh Elokis has to keep its connection with Hashem strong, in the way it acts and the way it thinks and feels: It uses hiskashrus to a tzadik, Avodas HaTefillah, doing mitzvos, and making a special connection through learning Torah.
We also learned about the Nefesh Habehamis and the tools it has to try to separate a Yid from his connection and closeness to Hashem: Getting excited and busy with Gashmius things for any reason except for doing what Hashem wants.
Both sides are always fighting with each other, to be in control not only of the guf, but of the other nefesh too!
In today’s Tanya, the Alter Rebbe tells us about a Tzadik She’aino Gamur — someone who works hard to make their Nefesh Elokis so strong that the Yetzer Hara stops bothering them!
Only a Tzadik Gamur can completely change the Yetzer Hara to become kedusha, because of their strong love for Hashem. But a Tzadik She’aino Gamur can make their Yetzer Hara stop bothering them completely, even though part of it is still there.
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In today’s Hayom Yom we learn about Taharas Ha’Avir.
Did you ever walk on the sidewalk when a bus passes by? Sometimes it leaves a big cloud of smoke and it’s hard to breathe! You might even start coughing! That’s because with all of the smoke from the bus, the air isn’t good to breathe.
People need air to live. When the air is good, people can be healthy. Air that is dirty or polluted can chas veshalom make people sick. If we have dirty air in our house, we can open a window or turn on an air filter to clean the air.
In the world, there is also a ruchnius kind of air. When the “air” is full of Torah and mitzvos, people can be healthy, good Yidden. In a place where people don’t know about Hashem, the air is not good, and neshamos can chas veshalom get sick.
The first thing to do is to clean the air.
How do we clean the ruchnius air? Using words of Torah. When we walk down the street, or go shopping, or on a subway, we can say words of Torah baal peh. This will clean the air. Everyone should memorize some Torah so we can clean the air wherever we go!
What Torah do YOU know Baal Peh? Do you know the pesukim? Tanya? Mishnayos?
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We are learning the same mitzvah again in Sefer Hamitzvos, (Mitzvas Asei #246) that the Beis Din needs to pasken according to halacha when there is an argument between people about money.
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We are learning halachos about when two people disagree in Beis Din about what belongs to them.
Perek Zayin: One halacha in this perek is that if someone says something in Beis Din, he can’t change his mind and say he was joking.
Perek Ches: Usually, the halacha is that we assume that whatever a person has belongs to him. If another person says the opposite, that person would need to prove that it really belongs to him. But for something that is usually rented, the halacha is different. So let’s say that Reuven usually rents out his lawn mower, and people know he does. Now Shimon has it in his house and says that Reuven gave it to him! Reuven is allowed to make a Shevuas Heses (a promise Miderabanan) saying that he didn’t give it to Shimon, and then he can take it back.
Perek Tes: In this perek, we learn some of the Halachos about what happens if two people are holding onto something, and both of them say it belongs to them. In Mishnayos, this halacha is called “Shnayim Ochazin BeTallis” — “Two people are holding on to a tallis.”
The halacha is that both people need to take a shevuah, a very strong kind of promise, that it belongs to them, and then the Beis Din splits it (or how much it is worth) between both of them.
Chassidus teaches us about this halacha, that in Ruchnius it is talking about two people who say that a certain mitzvah was done because of them. (Like if a teacher and a student both want to say it was THEIR mitzvah that the student was successful in learning Torah.) Each person needs to make a promise to say how hard they really worked on this mitzvah, and that’s how much of the reward of the mitzvah they get.
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What do we do if two groups of witnesses each say something different? We know one group is lying, but don’t know which one!
Let’s say that two groups of people come to be eidim, one from Chevron and one from Yerushalayim — but they say different things. One must be lying! If one person from each group later come to be eidim about something else, we don’t believe them! That’s because one of them must be a liar, so we really don’t have two witnesses.
Mazel Tov! We have now finished learning this set of halachos.
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The Rebbe said this in a sicha a week and a half after the Nitzachon and Yom Tov of Hey Teves:
Usually, the Torah finishes things with a good or happy inyan. But at the end of this week’s parsha, which is the end of the whole Chumash Bereishis, the Torah ends off with something very sad! Here, the last thing the Torah says is that Yosef lived for 110 years, and then they put Yosef in an Aron in Mitzrayim.
Of course that is what happened, but is that the best way to finish the whole Chumash Bereishis?
The Rebbe tells us that really it IS the most important thing to tell us at the end of this Chumash!
The whole Chumash Bereishis tells us about the things that happened to our Avos. Not only do we learn lessons from the things our Avos did, but we get kochos from them for when similar things happen to us! We need to use these kochos when we are in Golus, like the Golus we learn about in Chumash Shemos.
That’s why the last thing we learn, before Golus Mitzrayim starts in the next Chumash, is that Yosef’s Aron stayed with the Yidden in Mitzrayim. The Torah is telling us that when we are in Golus, having the “Aron of Yosef” with us is a tremendous help and koach to get through the Golus!
In our last Golus too, we see that the Ohel of all of the Rebbeim stayed with us! Many Tzadikim were buried in Eretz Yisroel, but the Rebbeim stayed with their Chassidim, where they were. We know that whenever we need a bracha (in Gashmius or in Ruchnius), we always have a place to turn to get the koach we need. We can go to “the Aron of Yosef,” the Ohel of the Rebbe which is with us in Golus, and that will give us encouragement to get through the Golus and bring Moshiach now!
See Farbrengen Vayechi 5747
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Chassidus shows us how the Korban Tomid teaches us what davening is all about!
The main part of davening, the way the Anshei Keneses Hagedolah set it up, is Shemoneh Esrei, where we ask Hashem for our needs. Still, the main point of davening is much deeper.
The word “tefillah” also means “connection,” and by davening, we connect ourselves to Hashem. We do ask for our needs in davening, but that’s because only by having the things we need can we really be close to Hashem!
We can learn this from the Korban Tomid, which was a Korban Olah.
When most korbanos are brought, part of the animal is burned on the Mizbeiach, part of it goes to the kohanim, and part of it goes to the person who brought it. But a Korban Olah is different. The ENTIRE korban is burned on the Mizbeiach, and no person gets a piece.
When we daven, we are doing it just like a Korban Olah! We aren’t expecting to get anything for ourselves, all we want is to come close to Hashem and live the way Hashem wants us to.
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When we wash our hands before eating bread, it is very important to make sure that our entire hand is covered with water.
So besides for using a lot of water, we hold our hands pointing upwards a little bit. This helps make sure that the water can reach our fingertips, and between all of our fingers.
Seder Netilas Yodayim of the Alter Rebbe, se’if alef
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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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Believing in Moshiach is a very basic part of Yiddishkeit, and is something that every Yid needs to do.
But if so, why isn’t it one of the 613 mitzvos?
At the beginning of Sefer Hamitzvos, we learned the Rambam’s rules about what makes something counted as one of the 613 mitzvos. One of the rules is that if there is something very general in the Torah, like “be careful to do the mitzvos,” it is not counted as its own mitzvah.
That is why believing in Moshiach isn’t its own mitzvah. Believing and hoping for the Geulah means to believe that there will soon be a time when we will be able to do the WHOLE Torah and mitzvos in the best way.
So believing in Moshiach is very general — it is believing that we can do all the mitzvos properly. Since it is general, it is not counted as one of the 613 mitzvos, even though it is a very important part of every Yid’s life!
See Likutei Sichos chelek Yud-Ches, p. 280, ha’ara 63
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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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