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CHUMASH
Parshas Toldos - Shishi with Rashi
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In today’s Chumash, Yaakov gets the brachos, and needs to run away when Eisav finds out.
Yaakov’s brachos: Yitzchak Avinu thought that Yaakov was really Eisav! He gave him ten brachos!
Some of the brachos are that he should have rain, so his food will grow well. He should rule other nations and other nations should not rule over him! People who curse him should be cursed, and people who give him brachos should get brachos too. We read these brachos at the beginning of Veyitein Lecha, that we say on Motzei Shabbos!
Eisav’s brachos: After getting the brachos, Yaakov left. Just then, Eisav came back with the food he prepared. He told Yitzchak to come eat, so he could get the brachos.
“Who are you?” Yitzchak asked.
“I am your oldest son, Eisav,” he answered.
When Yitzchak heard this, he was very confused. He also saw Gehennom opening in front of Eisav, and he started to shake! “So who brought me food before? I gave the brachos to him already! But I see he deserved the brachos, so he will keep them.”
Eisav was very upset! He screamed, “Give me a bracha too!”
“But I already gave your brachos to Yaakov — he came in a tricky way and I thought it was you.”
“So that’s why you called him Yaakov!” Eisav cried. “Yaakov can mean to trap — and he already trapped me twice! First, he took away the bechorah from me (the zechus and responsibility of being the oldest), and now he also took my bracha!”
Now Yitzchak saw that this wasn’t a mistake at all! Eisav sold his bechorah, so Yaakov really DID deserve to get the brachos for being the oldest! He told Eisav that Yaakov had a bracha now to rule over him, but Eisav still cried that he wanted a bracha too.
Yitzchak gave Eisav a bracha that he would have rain so his plants will grow, even if he didn’t deserve it. And if he would see Yaakov’s children (the Yidden) doing aveiros, he would be allowed to rule over them until they do teshuvah.
Yaakov runs away: Eisav was very angry at Yaakov! Because of Yaakov, he got a less special bracha! Eisav wanted to kill Yaakov, but he decided to wait until Yitzchak passed away, so he wouldn’t make his father upset.
Rivkah knew about Eisav’s plan through Ruach Hakodesh, and warned Yaakov to run away. She told him to go to Lavan’s house in Charan, and stay there until Eisav isn’t angry anymore. “I will send you a message when you can come home,” she told him. “Don’t try to fight Eisav, because then his children will try to kill you.”
Rivkah wanted Yaakov to have even more brachos. She told Yitzchak that she was worried that Yaakov would marry a Chiti girl like Eisav. So Yitzchak gave Yaakov a bracha to go find a wife from Rivkah’s family in Padan Aram, and that many children should come from him. He gave him many of the brachos that Hashem gave to Avraham Avinu, and a bracha that Eretz Yisrael will belong to HIS children, not Eisav’s!
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Today’s kapitelach are Yud-Ches to Chof-Beis.
Because we are in Chodesh Kislev, we will learn a piece of Chassidus on today’s Tehillim:
One of the pesukim in today’s Tehillim is, “Ve’Ata Kadosh, Yosheiv Tehillos Yisroel.” “You, Hashem, the holy One, sits on a throne because of the praises of the Yidden.”
The Frierdiker Rebbe tells a story of the Baal Shem Tov about this posuk:
Before the Baal Shem Tov became known, he would travel around from village to village. He would ask the men, women, and children in the village how they were doing. The Yidden would answer things like, “Boruch Hashem, we are doing well,” or “The Aibershter should continue being kind to us,” or “The Ribono Shel Olam is good to us.”
The Baal Shem Tov enjoyed hearing all of these answers!
Once, the Baal Shem Tov came to a town where there was a very great Talmid Chochom, who was also a porush — he didn’t spend much time with Gashmius. The Baal Shem Tov, who was dressed like a simple person, also asked this porush how he was. The porush did not like to interrupt his learning, so at first, he ignored the Baal Shem Tov. When the Baal Shem Tov asked him again and again, the porush got annoyed and pointed to the door, wanting the Baal Shem Tov to leave!
The Baal Shem Tov asked him, “Why are you refusing to give Hashem parnasa? Why are you letting Hashem be hungry?”
The porush did not understand, so the Baal Shem Tov explained: “Hashem’s parnasa comes from the Yidden who praise Hashem! That is what the posuk in Tehillim is saying — Hashem sits on His throne because of the Yidden who praise Him.”
In the maamar, the Frierdiker Rebbe explains why this is: When Yidden praise Hashem for the Gashmius things that they have, they are giving Hashem what He needs — we make the world more aidel! Then Hashem gives us our parnasa — the Gashmius things that we need to have.
See Maamar Ve’Ata Kadosh, Sefer Hamaamarim Yiddish
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TANYA
Kuntres Acharon Siman Daled
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The Alter Rebbe is explaining the importance of taking Gashmius things and making them holy, which we also accomplish through davening.
In today’s Tanya, one of things that the Alter Rebbe explains based on this is why Moshe Rabbeinu begged Hashem so much to be able to go into Eretz Yisrael. Why did he want it so much?
The Alter Rebbe explains that mitzvos are very special and close to Hashem. The way Hashem REALLY wants the mitzvos to be done is with gashmius, using things from this world.
There are certain mitzvos you can only do in Eretz Yisroel. If you’re not in Eretz Yisroel, you can keep them by learning about them. But Moshe Rabbeinu wasn’t happy with that. He wanted to do those mitzvos with gashmius, because he knew that’s the best way to do a mitzvah.
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The Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid acted in different ways:
The Baal Shem Tov would travel a lot to many places, and the Maggid stayed in Mezritch. Not only did the people of Mezritch come to the Maggid, but people travelled from all over to come to him! They already had heard about Chassidus, since the Baal Shem Tov had made sure to spread Chassidus all over.
One of the things we can learn from this Hayom Yom is about the two different kinds of Shlichus we do: One way is like the Baal Shem Tov, to go out on mivtzoyim, and the second way is to make a beautiful and welcoming Beis Chabad so that people who have heard about it can come and make a special connection to Yiddishkeit.
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Some mitzvos are not too complicated. They can be explained in a few Mishnayos or a few pages of Gemara or less. The Rambam gathers them and puts them in a few halachos or a few perakim.
Then there are other mitzvos that have many, many details! We need to know how to keep the mitzvah in all kinds of situations, and every situation has its own halachos. There can be a whole mesechta of the Gemara or more explaining this mitzvah, and many sets of halachos in Rambam to show us just how to do it!
Today’s mitzvah (Mitzvas Asei #245), is one of those kinds of mitzvos. If you are going to do any kind of business, you need to follow the Torah’s rules about how to do it. We are learning these sets of halachos right now in Rambam. That’s why we keep reviewing this mitzvah over and over!
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RAMBAM
Hilchos Shluchim V'Shutfin
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In today’s Rambam, we learn more about partners (“shutfim”) and the halachos for them:
Perek Ches teaches us about partners who share an animal or a field, and only one of them does all of the work. How should they split up the money?
In Perek Tes, the Rambam tells us about a special shevuah — promise — which is for partners. They both work hard in the business so they think that there is nothing wrong if they take something from it without asking the other partner. So there is this promise they need to make in Beis Din in certain cases and it makes them remember that even though they are partners they need to act honestly with each other in their business.
Finally, in Perek Yud, the last Perek, the Rambam tells us many halachos about what the Beis Din should do when partners take each other to Beis Din.
All of these halachos help us keep the mitzvah of doing business the way the Torah teaches, which has been the mitzvah for so many days!
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Usually, food that comes from a non-kosher animal is not kosher. So milk from a non-kosher animal is not kosher, and eggs from a non-kosher bird aren’t kosher.
But here’s one thing that comes from a non-kosher animal that we CAN eat: Honey! The Rambam explains that really the honey doesn’t come FROM the bees — the bees collect herbs or pollen from flowers and store it for later by making it into honey.
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The month of Kislev is called a Chassidishe Chodesh. There are so many Chassidishe Yomim Tovim! Here are some of them:
It’s the month when the Alter Rebbe came out of prison, and it was decided in Shomayim that whenever there is something that gets in the way of Chassidus, Chassidus will always win.
It is the month when there was the Geulah of the Mitteler Rebbe, and the day the seforim came back to 770.
It has in it the birthday and yartzeit of the Mitteler Rebbe, and the chasuna of the Rebbe and Rebbetzin.
On Rosh Chodesh the Rebbe was again able to be with chassidim after having a dangerous illness that made chassidim very worried.
It finishes with Chanukah, a Yom Tov all about light, which is what Chassidus brings into the world.
The whole month is full of days that remind us and help us live like a Chossid! We need to use this month to its fullest so that we can become the best chassidim that we can be and bring Moshiach now.
One thing the Rebbe tells us that we need to do is to learn more Chassidus every day, from each of the Rebbeim! We learn the Chassidus of the Baal Shem Tov all the way to the chassidus that the Rebbe teaches us. There is so much we can learn! (In the daily Tehillim for Kislev, we are explaining a posuk according to the Chassidus of one of the Rebbeim.) What will YOU learn extra today?
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People get worried a lot. But the time when people are worried most is… during davening!
During davening, the Yetzer Hara tries to get us to think about, plan, or worry about things that have nothing to do with the words we are saying. It’s not hard to understand why:
The Yetzer Tov and Yetzer Hara aren’t two separate things, they are very much connected. What one yetzer does makes a difference to the other. During davening, the neshama and the Yetzer Tov get stronger. The Yetzer Hara gets nervous and fights back, using all of its might!
That is like what happens when two people are fighting. When one of them is losing, the other gets desperate and fights back as hard as he can.
But that doesn’t mean we should just LET the Yetzer Hara get us to think about other things!
Before we go to sleep, sometimes our minds are full of many worrisome or complicated thoughts. We might be thinking about problems with school, with work, with the house, or with relatives. But in order to be able to fall asleep, we stop thinking about these things!
When it comes to davening, we can also stop thinking these thoughts. We can try to focus on the words of our davening, and not on whatever new idea the Yetzer Hara comes up with.
If that doesn’t work, we can pull out OUR last tool: Ask Hashem for help! Ask Hashem to have Rachmanus on us and not let the Yetzer Hara distract us from having kavana during davening.
One eitzah the Rebbe gives for concentration in davening, in many letters, is to daven while looking inside of the siddur, because looking at the words of the siddur keeps our mind from wandering.
See Tanya Perek Chof-Ches
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It is a very good minhag of women to put on their Shabbos clothes before bentching licht. It shows kavod for the Shabbos licht and for Shabbos itself, which starts right after lighting our candles!
But if someone is running late, it is better to bentch licht wearing weekday clothes, than to bentch licht very close to Shkiyah, which might chas veshalom possibly end up as Chillul Shabbos.
See Kitzur Dinei Uminhagei Neiros Shabbos Kodesh VeYom Tov by Rabbi N. Dubov, p. 11
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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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It says in the Zohar that when we will come close to the days of Moshiach, we will see that even children will know about the hidden secrets of Torah.
This is one of the signs of Moshiach that we can see today! Even small kinderlach learn and understand Chassidus, the hidden secrets of the Torah!
See Zohar 118a
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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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