Shabbos-Daily Chitas [Chumash, Tanya] & Rambam Summaries [1st Iyar 5783]

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Shabbos, 1st Iyar 5783/April 22, 2023

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Parshas Tazria Metzora-Shevi’i

 

  1. The impurity of Shichvas Zera:
    • A man who releases semen is to immerse in water and he is impure until the evening.
    • Any garment or leather that touches the semen is impure and is to be immersed in water.
    • A woman who lies with a man and he released semen into her, they are both impure until the evening and are to immerse in water.

 

  1. The impurity of a Niddah:
  • When a woman sees blood, she is to be in the state of Niddah for seven days.
  • Contact with her: Whoever touches her is impure until the evening. Whatever bed she lies on and whatever seat she sits on becomes impure until the evening. One who touches her bed becomes impure until the night. Whoever sits on her seat becomes impure until the night. If a man lies with her, he is impure for seven days just like her.

 

  1. The impurity of a Zava:
  • When a woman sees blood for many days outside of her menstruation period, she is to be in the state of impurity for the amount of days that she bled.
  • Contact with her: Whatever bed she lies on and whatever seat she sits on becomes impure until the evening. Whoever touches it is impure until the evening.
  • Purification process of Zava: When she stops seeing the blood she is to count seven days and is to become pure.
  • On the eighth day she is to take two birds and bring them to the Ohel Moed to the Kohen. The Kohen is to offer one as a Chatas and one as an Olah. She then becomes purified of her impurity.
  • Bnei Yisrael are to be warned of all the above impurities. This concludes the laws of all these impurities.

Tanya End of Chapter 43

1.       Preceding loving Hashem to fearing Hashem:

  • At times, the above lower love described as Ahavas Olam precedes fear of G-d. This is dependent on the quality of the contemplation which founded it.
  • Chasadim can descend before Gevuros: Contemplation [of G-d’s greatness], called Daas, incorporates both Chesed and Gevurah [and arouses the feeling of] both love and fear, as Chesed is love while Gevura is fear. Now, at times the Chasadim descend and become revealed prior to the Gevuros.

 

2.       The love of a Baal Teshuvah:

  • Precedes his fear of G-d: Due to the above ability for love to occasionally precede fear, it is possible for a Rasha, and one who has sinned, to perform repentance through love that is aroused within his heart upon him remembering Hashem his G-d.
  • The revealed love includes fear in a concealed manner: Nonetheless, consequently fear is also included within this love, although it is found in a state of minuteness and concealment, meaning that his fear is limited to simply fearing the sin, as he fears to commit rebellion against Him [and not that there is an actual fear of G-d Himself]. However, [only] the love is found in a conscious state within his heart and mind [while the fear is in his subconscious, and in a state of unawareness].

 

3.       The proper order to follow is to first arouse fear:

  • Preceding love is not the norm: The above ability to precede love to fear is a rare occurrence that is prescribed only in specific scenarios through Divine providence, [who plants within the penitent sinner thoughts of love to help motivate his repentance].
  • Elazar Ben Durdaya: A case example of this occurred with Rebbe Elazar Ben Durdaya[1] [who lived his entire life as a sinner, visiting every harlot known to man, until he was stricken with an arousal of Teshuvah due to love, and died within his passion and ecstasy of repentance love].
  • The norm-To first arouse fear: However, the normal order to be followed by all people, and that is within the power of each individual to choose, is to first arouse fear, the lower fear, in at least its state of minuteness so he separate himself from evil and perform good through shining his G-dly soul with the light of Torah and Mitzvos. Afterwards he is to shine it with the light of love.
  • Hint in word Veahavta: This is hinted to in the fact that the word “Veahavta” is twice the numerical value of Or, implying that it includes two lights; first the light that shines to the soul through performing Torah and Mitzvos, and second the light of love.

[1] See Avoda Zara 17a

Rambam, Hilchos Melachim Umilchamos, Chapter 12

Halacha 1: No change in nature

  • A person should not believe that there will be a change in the nature of the world in the future ever. Rather, the world will act in his natural order.
  • Those verses in Scripture which depict a supernatural order of the world are mere parables, and are not to be understood literally. In the times of the Messiah we will understand the meaning of each of these verses in Scripture.
  • The Jewish people will live in peace and people will no longer sin: For example, that which it says in Scripture that the wolf will live with the sheep means to say that the Jewish people will live securely amongst the evil Gentiles, as everyone will return to a moral lifestyle without stealing and destruction.

 

Halacha 2: The order of occurrences in the future era

  • No foreign sovereignty: The sages state that there is no difference between this world and the days of the Messiah with the exception to the fact that the Jewish people will no longer be under foreign sovereignty.
  • The war of Gog and Magog: In the days of the Messiah the war between Gog and Magog will take place. It will take place in the beginning of the days of the Messiah.
  • The timing of the arrival of Elijah the prophet: Elijah the prophet will arrive prior to the war of Gog and Magog, and some of the sages hold that he will arrive even prior to the coming of the Messiah.
  • The purpose of Elijah’s arrival: Elijah will appear to the world for the purpose of bringing peace to the world. His purpose does not involve verifying the lineage of people and separating the pure from the impure.
  • Don’t involve yourself in trying to discover what will happen in the future era: No one exactly knows when things will take place in the times of the Messiah until it actually happens. All the disputes amongst the sages regarding the various occurrences are based on conflicting verses of Scripture. All in all, knowing the exact details of what will happen and when it will happen in the future era, is not of great importance in our faith, and a person should not involve himself in this field and should not lengthen in its discussion making it his main focus as it leads to neither fear or love of God.
  • Not to calculate a time of the Messiah’s arrival: Likewise, one should not calculate as to when the Messiah is to arrive, as the sages state that the soul should leave those who calculate the end of days. Rather, one is to wait for his arrival and believe in the general matter, as explained.

 

Halacha 3: Re-establishing tribal lineage

  • In the days of the Messiah, after his monarchy will be established and all the Jewish people will be gathered by him, then he will establish the lineage of every Jew based on the divine spirit and based on the Urim Vetumim.
  • The tribe of Levi: The tribe of Levi will be the first to be verified. The Messiah will reveal who is a true Levite and who is a true Kohane, and push the rest of the individuals to the general populace of Israel.
  • The remaining tribes: He will likewise reveal the tribe that each Jew belongs to.
  • Will not reveal those of blemished lineage: However, he will not come to reveal who is of valid lineage and who is not, such as to reveal who is a bastard and who is a slave, as a family that has become assimilated is assimilated.

 

Halacha 4: Why we yearn for the Messiah

  • Not for physical gain: The sages and prophets did not desire the coming of the Messiah in order for them to control the world and the Gentile nations, and neither in order to be respected by them and looked up to, and not in order to eat and drink and rejoice.
  • To study Torah and merit the world to come: Rather, they desired the coming of the Messiah in order so they have the free time to study Torah, and have no one oppress them in their desire of gaining wisdom. This in itself they desired in order to then merit the world to come.

 

Halacha 5: The state of the world in the future era

  • No war and no famine: In the times of the Messiah there will be neither hunger nor war.
  • No jealousy and competition: There will also be no jealousy and competition amongst people.
  • An abundance of pleasure available for all: The reason for this is because all the pleasures of the world will be found like the dust of the earth and available for all.
  • Gaining knowledge of God: The entire involvement of the world populace in that time will be simply to gain knowledge of God and nothing more.
  • The state of the Jewish people: In that time, the Jewish people will be great sages and have knowledge of esoteric matters, and comprehend their creator as much as humanly possible, as the knowledge of God will fill the earth like water covers the sea.

 

 

About The Author

Rabbi Yaakov Goldstein is a 6th generation descendent of the famous Chief Rabbi of Izhmir, Rav Yehoshua Avraham Krispin, who authored a number of Sefarim, and was a colleague of Rav Chaim Falagi, and father in-law of the Pesach Hadvir. He currently lives with his wife Shayna, and twelve children K”H, in Tzfas, Israel. Rabbi Goldstein received Semicha from Rabbi Schneur Zalman Labkowski of the Tomchei Temimim headquarters in 2005 and served as a chaplain in the Lotar/Kalatz and K9 unit of the IDF from years 2005-2008. He is also a certified Shochet, and has performed Hashgacha work in slaughterhouses. Rabbi Goldstein is the director of Shulchanaruchharav.com, the world’s leading web-based Halacha database, and is the director of the Home Study Semicha Program, a self-study web-based Semicha program. He is a prolific author of over 50 Sefarim studied by a wide range of readers throughout the world, which is used regularly in Semicha programs around the globe. He is a world renowned Posek, answering questions to a web-based market, and serves as a local Posek, Rav, and Lecturer, in the Tzemach Tzedek community Shul in Tzefas, Israel. His many classes can be heard both from his website, Vimeo and YouTube channel. Students can join live to classes given in the Tzemach Tzedek Shul, through the “בית חבד צפת Chabad Tsfat” YouTube channel.

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