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CHUMASH
Parshas Vayeira - Shlishi with Rashi
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In today’s Chumash, we learn how the malochim come to save Lot and his family before Sedom is destroyed.
The malachim who were sent to destroy Sedom had walked very slowly to give Avraham a chance to daven to save the cities. It was already night when they came to Sedom.
The people of Sedom chose Lot to be the judge that day, so he was sitting in his place at the gate of the city. When he saw the malachim, he invited them to sneak into his house so nobody would see, and they could rest and then leave early in the morning before people woke up.
The malachim said that they didn’t need to come to his house, they could sleep outside. But Lot, who had learned about Hachnosas Orchim from Avraham, begged them so much that they finally agreed to be his guests. Since it was Pesach, and Lot did some of the mitzvos, he made them matzah to eat.
The malachim asked Lot about the people of Sedom. Lot agreed they were not good people, but he made excuses for them.
Even before they went to bed, many wicked people of Sedom surrounded the house. Nobody tried to stop them, even though they knew they were going to do something mean.
They told Lot to send out the guests, and they would do something very not nice to them.
Lot wanted to take care of his guests, and would not agree. He offered to send out his daughters instead.
But the people told Lot they don’t want his daughters, they want the guests! They tried to break down the door and take them by force! The malachim pulled Lot inside, and made the wicked people blind so they couldn’t find the way into the house.
The malachim told Lot: “Now you can’t make excuses for them anymore! You see how bad they are! Tell us who else is in your family. They all need get out of here, because Hashem sent us to destroy the city!”
Lot told his sons-in-law to come, but they didn’t want to — they thought he was joking.
By now it was almost morning, the time for the cities to be destroyed. The malachim told Lot to at least take his daughters, or else he would be stuck in the city when it was destroyed!
Lot wanted to save his things, and he wasn’t ready to leave right away. The malachim grabbed his hands and his wife and two daughters, and pulled them outside the city. Then the malach in charge of them told them to run for their lives, and not to look — because they really deserved to be punished too. “Go run to Avraham!”
Lot didn’t want to run to Avraham, because he knew that next to Avraham, he looks very bad. So he asked if he could run to a different city, Bela, which was not as bad as the others. (Even though this was one of the 5 cities that were supposed to be destroyed, we will see that Hashem agreed not to destroy it as a favor to Lot.)
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Today’s kapitelach of Tehillim are Ayin-Tes through Pey-Beis.
When these kapitelach were the Rebbe’s kapitelach for his Yom Huledes, there was a niggun made up for each one! Do you know them all?
In Kapitel Pey, Dovid Hamelech starts asking Hashem that “Roei Yisroel Haazina, Noheg Katzon Yosef.” “The Shepherd of Yidden, listen, the One who takes care of Yosef like sheep.”
In this posuk, Yidden are called with TWO names: Yisroel and Yosef.
We know Yidden are called Bnei Yisroel, because we are all children of Yaakov Avinu, who is also called Yisroel. But why are all Yidden called with the name Yosef, if he was only one of the Shevatim?
The reason is because in the time when there was no food in Eretz Yisroel, Yosef was the one who fed all the Yidden. Since he gave all the Yidden chayus, we are all called by his name!
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TANYA
Igeres Hakodesh Siman Chof-Zayin
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After the histalkus of a tzadik or a Rebbe, a part of the neshama of the Rebbe can come inside of each one of the Chassidim! If a chossid works hard to learn the Rebbe’s Torah and follow the Rebbe’s horaos, he gets this special koach.
With the extra koach from the tzadik’s neshama, it is easier to live the way the Rebbe taught! With this koach, the chassidim can really understand the things the Rebbe said, because part of the Rebbe becomes a part of them in a way of Pnimius, a way they can understand and feel!
Besides for that, there’s ANOTHER special koach that the Chassidim get after the histalkus of a Rebbe: A part of the neshama of the Tzadik that comes in a way of Makif, and doesn’t become a part of us in a way we can understand. This koach brings in thoughts that help us do teshuvah and do mitzvos in a more beautiful way.
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A person has a koach in their neshama called machshava, which means thinking. This koach is ALWAYS working — a person is ALWAYS thinking! But where does this koach find things to think about? From the koach of the neshama called sechel, things a person knows or learns.
So if a person knows or learns good things, things about Torah and Yiddishkeit and Ahavas Yisroel, that’s what he’ll be thinking about! But if what a person knows is just about Gashmius, or just what he sees and hears about in the street, then THAT’S what he will think about.
So we need to make sure to learn Torah every day. This will fill up our sechel with good things, and keep our machshava busy thinking about them!
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Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Lo Saasei #251) is that we are not allowed to hurt other people with our words (ona’as devarim). We aren’t allowed to say mean things, or things that will make someone embarrassed or feel bad.
For example, we aren’t allowed to remind a Baal Teshuvah about the aveiros he did, or tell someone who is suffering that it must be a punishment for something he did. We also can’t ask questions that make people think that we are going to buy something when we aren’t really planning on buying it.
We learn this from a posuk in Parshas Behar: וְלֹא תוֹנוּ אִישׁ אֶת עֲמִיתוֹ וְיָרֵאתָ מֵאֱלֹקֶיךָ
The details of this mitzvah are explained in Perek Daled of Bava Metziah.
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more about selling and buying according to Torah.
Perek Yud-Gimmel teaches us what happens if someone trades or sells something for more than it is really worth. This is called Ona’as Mamon.
If a person is honest, and says how much each thing is really worth, then it is never called ona’ah, since both people agreed to the deal KNOWING that it might not look fair.
Perek Yud-Daled teaches us more about ona’ah. The Beis Din needs to make fair prices for things so that nobody will pay too much.
The second half of this perek teaches us the halachos of today’s mitzvah, Ona’as Devarim. We need to be careful how we talk, not telling someone to buy something in a store that doesn’t really sell it, or pretending that we want to buy something when we really don’t want to. This mitzvah is also important when we aren’t doing business, that we can’t say something that will hurt another person or end up leaving him feeling bad.
Perek Tes-Vov teaches us about “Mekach To’us” — when someone can say “I wouldn’t have bought this if I knew about this problem!” For example, if you knew that the bike seat is wobbly and sometimes falls off, you might have bought a different bike instead. You can go and get your money back from the person who sold it to you!
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This perek teaches us more halachos about Taharas Hamishpacha.
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In yesterday’s Chumash, Sheini of Parshas Vayeira, we learned how Avraham davened for the people of Sedom, asking Hashem to save them from their terrible punishment.
The word the Torah uses to say that Avraham came to daven is “Vayigash,” and he came close. Rashi explains that this word means that he was even ready to speak strong words to Hashem!
That doesn’t sound like Avraham Avinu! Avraham had lots of chesed, and enjoyed doing Hachnosas Orchim. He was very kind. How could Avraham be ready to speak in a strong way, and especially to Hashem?
The Rebbe teaches that Avraham Avinu was ready to do something hard for him in order to save another person. Even though his nature was to speak with chesed, he was ready to even demand that Hashem save the people of Sodom.
We can learn an important lesson from Avraham Avinu!
When it comes to saving another person, whether to save his body or to save his neshama, we need to do whatever we can! We should be ready to use any opportunities, even if it is against our nature.
Yitzy is a very shy boy. He has a few close friends, but is uncomfortable speaking in front of groups or in front of people he doesn’t know.
One Monday, he goes shopping with his mother. When they get to the checkout line, Yitzy’s mother suddenly remembers that she forgot the eggs. The line is long, so she asks Yitzy to watch her cart while she runs back to get them.
Yitzy is standing with the cart, when he sees the man behind him looking curiously at him. Yitzy wonders if that man might be Jewish, but he is very shy to ask. Then he remembers how Avraham was ready to do something that was the opposite of what he usually did to help another person! Yitzy smiles at the man and asks him if he is Jewish. The man answers eagerly that he is. By the time Yitzy’s mother comes back, he is having a whole conversation about wearing a yarmulka.
Before they leave the store, they have already invited their new friend to join them for Shabbos! Yitzy is glad that he overcame his shyness in order to help another Yid become connected to Yiddishkeit.
See Likutei Sichos chelek Yud p. 55, Dvar Malchus Parshas Vayeira
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What do you do in your free time?
At a rally, the Rebbe spoke to kids about what we do when we have extra time.
As Jewish kids, we have a different way of doing things! We don’t just look at what everyone else does, we look at what the Torah says we should do.
And what does the Torah say?
Veshinantam Levanecha Vedibarta Bam — Parents and teachers have a responsibility to teach and discuss Torah with their children and their students!
Beshivtecha Beveisecha — When you are sitting in your house, after school or shul, that is also a time for Torah!
Uvelechtecha Vaderech — When you are on your way somewhere, whether you are driving to school or to Bubby’s house, that is a time for Torah too!
Uveshachbecha Uvekumecha — At bedtime and in the morning are also times for Torah!
After school, we are not finished learning! We can find a book, or a game, or a contest that will give us the chance to learn more.
When we are in the car, we can ask our parents to listen to Torah stories or shiurim!
Before we go to sleep, we can make sure we are learning something too! We can review the Tanya or Mishnayos we know by heart, or learn Sefer Hamitzvos.
In the morning, we can start off our day with Chitas or another shiur.
That way, we can be sure that we will be learning Torah in a way of Veshinantam — all the time!
See sicha Yud-Beis Adar Tof-Shin-Mem-Beis
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When do we say that something is lost?
If we see something that looks like it was put in a safe place on purpose, the halacha is that we should not assume that it was lost. We should leave it there for the person who put it down.
For example, if we see a box of crayons on someone’s desk, even if it doesn’t have their name on it, and even if we don’t think it belongs to the person whose desk it is, we should just leave it alone.
If it is NOT in a safe place though, even if it looks like they put it there on purpose, we should take it and keep it safe until we can give it back.
See Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, siman Kuf-Pey-Zayin
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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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A chossid once wrote to the Rebbe that he had made a hachlata to spread more Chassidus at a certain time.
In the answer to his letter, the Rebbe wrote that he was very happy about this hachlata. There was only one problem: Why was the chossid pushing off his hachlata to spread the Chassidus later?
Moshiach is SO close, and the only thing that Moshiach is waiting for is for us to finish “Lichsheyafutzu Maayanosecha Chutza,” to finish spreading Chassidus.
By spreading Chassidus sooner, we can bring the Geulah faster. And every minute we bring Moshiach faster is a very big deal! One minute of Golus is one minute of terrible pain for Yidden. And one extra minute of Geulah is a minute of more joy and pleasure than anyone can imagine!
See Likutei Sichos chelek 23 p. 450
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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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