Parshas Tetzaveh
Yud Adar 5766
Volume 2
Issue 19
The Connections people
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THE SHLUCHIM OFFICE
PARSHAS TETZAVEH
A group of sixth graders were busy preparing their plans for Purim. "Let's do something different this year," someone said. "I have an idea! Let's make a Purim party for the people at the old age home."
"Great idea, we can prepare a play!"
"And a choir!"
"We can pack mishloach monos baskets for them!"
Suddenly one doubtful voice piped up from behind: "Aw come on, we can't really put on a good play, and we have no one who can lead a choir. They'll just laugh at us."
That did it. The rest of the group was no longer so sure of themselves. "Maybe we really can't do it," they thought.
That one uncertain voice planted doubt in everyone's minds. He succeeded in cooling everyone's enthusiasm and excitement.
Inside of us, we all have a Mr. Doubt. In Hebrew, it's called safek, and when we count its letters like numbers, they add up to the same number as the name Amalek.
Amalek? How did he get into the picture?
Let's start from the beginning. When the Yidden came out of Egypt, the entire world was amazed. Rulers trembled at the very mention of the Bnei Yisroel and Hashem. No nation dared stand in our way.
No one, that is, until the nation of Amalek came along. "Who do they think they are anyway?" taunted the Amalek people. With foolish chutzpah, they declared war on the Bnei Yisroel. To be sure, they lost, but their chutzpah made the other nations doubt the strength of Hashem and the Bnei Yisroel. After Amalek's attack, the other nations no longer trembled with fear.
Our Rabbis compare what happened to a bathtub full of boiling water. No one would dare dip his finger in for fear of getting scalded. Suddenly, a fool jumps in. He is severely burnt, but he cools the water slightly. Afterwards, others aren't as afraid of getting hurt.
This is Amalek. He cools people's enthusiasm. He plants doubt in people's minds. He causes people with good intentions to hesitate. He is the Mr. Doubt who holds people back from doing good things.
We read about him this Shabbos in shul. On Shabbos Zachor, we read how Amalek cooled all the nations' fear and respect for Hashem and the Bnei Yisroel.
Hashem commands us to wipe out the nation of Amalek. Today we can fulfil this obligation by wiping out everything Amalek stands for - especially Mr. Doubt.
Feel proud and confident about the good things we do as Jews! Never let Mr. Doubt creep in and cool your determination to study Torah and fulfill mitzvos!‘Please Tell Me What the Rebbe Said’
(Adapted from Likkutei Sichos, Vol. III)
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My end is 59 and I have father in me. Last weeks’ brain buster: Silver Foundations Answer: אדנים |
Congratulations to Meir Shimon Moskowitz, age 7 from Chicago, IL for solving the brain buster. |
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Hi there all you Queen Esthers, clowns, and Mordechais!
I was very busy this Purim traveling to see Purim parties all around the world. I saw some excellent costumes. You kids were so well disguised that I couldn’t even tell the difference between Mordechai and Haman! If you are a really good detective, you might have spied me hiding in the corner and watching all of the wonderful things that you were doing. I just love watching kid-shluchim helping their parents and teaching their friends.
Lots of Purim parties that I visited had popcorn on the tables. Have you ever seen popcorn being made? It pops so high and so fast that it looks like Chassidim dancing at a Farbrengen. I’ve seen popcorn popping in bowls many times, but this Purim was the first time I saw popcorn popping on someone’s face! I’m a professional at seeing so I notice lots of things that other folks don’t see. My specialty is seeing the un-seen and noticing the un-noticed. I take after my Zaidy Zelig. He had such good eyesight that he could see the inside of his eyelids with his eyes closed! As a chossid, I like to share everything that I know with others. That’s why I became an eye doctor. Being an eye doctor lets me help other people see things, too. And that brings me to the story I want to tell you.
Remember all those supermarket shoppers who I invited to my house for a grand Purim bash? One of them was a little curly-haired girl with big, round glasses and fifty-five freckles on her face. Every time Haman’s name was mentioned in the megillah, I noticed that her freckles would bounce all over her face like popcorn popping.
After megillah reading, she approached me and asked if I knew why her freckles were so jumpy. I told her that they were trying to fight Haman. The freckled-faced girl looked nervously around her. “I don’t see Haman! Where is he?” she asked in a frightened voice as her fifty-five freckles jumped faster and faster.
I calmed her and her freckles down and explained that she couldn’t see him but she could hear him. That was because she had a mini-Haman inside, talking to her.We all have a mini-Haman living inside of us. As you can imagine, since the Purim story happened so long ago, mini-Haman is a really old, grumpy man by now. All he likes to do is sit around on his rocking chair, make mean faces, and stop us from doing what needs to get done. He hates when Jewish children take action and do mitzvos. Every time we get excited about doing a mitzvah he tells us, “Don’t bother getting up, stay here and keep me company instead.”
But we can’t let grumpy, old Haman win. We need to copy those fifty-five freckles- and take action. Whenever a mitzvah comes our way we need to jump up like popcorn and do it with chayus and a smile. As kid--shluchim you always need to set the right example for your friends. When they see how excited you are about doing mitzvos, they’ll want to do them too. Before you know it, the whole world will be jumping and popping with mitzvos!
Keep popping mitzvos!
Dr. Getzel
The picture of Yossi shows him blowing into the lungs of an animal to make sure they are kosher.Yossi Katzman, age 8
Omaha, NebraskaDear Shluchim Office and Organizers of the Kinus Tzeirei HaShluchim,
I had a very good time at the Kinus this year. I’m very excited to be able to go to Gan Yisrael in Arizona and see all my friends. It was very special to go by the Rebbe’s house, and I want to thank you for taking me there. I met very nice boys, and I hope to keep in touch with them. I had very good counselors, they made me feel so special to be a Shliach of the Rebbe. Thank you for making so many wonderful things for Shluchim.
We Want Moshiach Now!
Love, Yossi
“משנכנס אדר מרבים בשמחה ”
“When the month of אדר enters, we increase in joy.”Sometimes, we want to be a little sad, but we have to remind ourselves that it is better to be happy. Sometimes, we have to try to be happy. And then there are those times that are just plain happy on their own.
The month of אדר is a happy time. It is a time when good things happen to the אידן . ה‘ does not let anyone make us unhappy during אדר , just like He did not let המן harm the אידן during אדר .
As soon as אדר comes around, פורים is in the air. We start thinking about פורים , learning about פורים , and preparing costumes and food and anything else that we might need. On פורים we have an extra מצוה to be happy. We also have to prepare for this.
Most people cannot jump from being sad to being very, very happy. We have to build up our happiness. We start by smiling, then we think about how good everything really is, and only then can we really be happy and have more energy to do things. If we want to be really happy on פורים , we have to start building up this happiness before – from the beginning of the month.
The happier we are before פורים , the better our פורים will be.
Of course, פורים would not be nearly as nice if we tried to enjoy it alone. Everyone has to be happy on פורים . It is no fun to be the only one with a smile. So part of our preparations for פורים need to include making other people happy. We need to tell everyone that אדר is a happy time. Then everyone will have a very happy פורים – together!
“ואתה תצוה ” was the last מאמר that was given out before כ“ז אדר א‘ תשנ“ב . We daven that משיח should come very, very soon and we will hear מאמרים and שיחות from the Rebbe again.
The words ”ואתה תצוה“seem to mean that the command comes from משה and not from ה‘ . And then theפסוק says, ”ויקחו אליך“ which seems that the אידן should bring the olive oil for the מנורה to משה . But didn't אהרן light the מנורה ?
The Rebbe explains that the פריערדיקער רבי said that the word צוה - command, is similar to the word צותה which means connection or bond. So the פסוק is teaching us that משה connects and binds the אידן with ה‘ .
The פריערדיקער רבי referred to משה as the רעיה מהמנא - the shepherd of אמונה . He is the one that makes the אידן internalize their אמונה (bring it into their נשמה .) This also applies to the ”משה“ of every generation.In the time of the Purim story,מרדכי was the רעיה מהמנא and he inspired the אידן to have מסירת נפש . (Although there is a ”משה“ in every generation), משה רבינו was the leader for ALL the אידן in his generation, מרדכי was the leader for ALL the אידן in his generation and so was the פריערדיקער רבי .
The עבודה of the רעיה מהמנא is to bring out the אמונה that is in the נשמה of every איד until they can fulfil the רצון of ה‘ even in the darkest גלות and their נשמה shines brightly. And through the effort of this we will have the זכות of the גאולה שלימה immediately!(ממאמר ואתה תצוה — י‘ אדר א‘ תשמ“א)
One of the most important מצוות is ואהבת לרעך כמוך . We, as אידן , have to love every person. ה‘ created people, and every person is precious. There is only one case where it is a מצוה to hate - we have a מצוה to hate עמלק .
עמלק is evil. עמלק has no regrets; he does hesitate to get hurt as long as he can hurt us. עמלק made us afraid, and עמלק continues to make us afraid of being attacked.
There are those who attack for a reason, and there are those who attack just for the sake of destroying someone else. Some countries will start a war because they want to protect a certain cause. And there are times when a group of people decides to scare and destroy other people, even if they will be destroyed in the process. This is pure evil, with no reason for it.
There is no place for such evil in the world. It only makes people scared. So we are given a מצוה to destroy עמלק , to get rid of any trace of this evil and hatefulness in the world. עמלק comes to attack when we expect it least. If we are ready for him, we do not need to be afraid.
So we remind ourselves about the מצוה that עמלק needs to be destroyed. On the שבת before פורים , the יום טוב when we celebrate being saved from our enemies, we read in the תורה about the war with עמלק . And we remember that we have to always be ready for them.
A Purim
Message from the RebbeWe are all different.
אידן live all over the world. We live together with Americans, Chinese, British, and French people. But we do not all live together with each other. We are all spread out. What makes us different to these people?Even though all אידן may not actually live together, we all have something in common. We were all chosen by ה‘ to have the תורה and to act differently than everyone else around us. We might live with others, but we are not like them. We are אידן .
At times, it might be hard to be different. We might think it would be easier or more fun to just act like everybody else. But we have to remember that we are not like them. We are special. It is wonderful. And exciting. We were chosen by ה‘ .
It won’t hurt you to be different.
Sometimes other people get jealous of us. Or they just don’t like the fact that someone is different than they are. המן wanted to destroy the אידן because they were different. He told אחשורש : “There is one nation who is spread out among all of the nations, whose ways are different than all other people.” המן wanted to do bad to the אידן just because they were different.
המן did not succeed, though. He could not carry out his plan for the very reason that the אידן acted differently - that they acted like אידן . מרדכי and אסתר helped the אידן , reassuring them that if they acted like they should, nothing would happen to them. ה‘ watches over the אידן . ה‘ takes extra care of us, because we are different.
So don’t be jealous of your neighbor who does not have to be so nice to his friends, or give up something he likes for someone who is not as lucky as him. Don’t be embarrassed, and don’t be afraid. Just do what you have to do, as a איד . And do it happily. Do it because you are different, and you are special.
ה‘ will help you!
Throughout history, whenever אידן were saved from a terrible decree, they celebrated that day every year as a mini-Purim.
This is the story of Purim Saragossa, which is celebrated on י“ז-י“ח שבט .
Saragossa was a big city in Spain. There was once a king in Saragossa who was very powerful. He ruled over a large area. This king was very nice and fair to the אידן .Whenever the king made a parade and passed through the part of town where the אידן lived, the אידן would come out to greet him. They would honor the king by bringing out the beautiful cases in which they kept their ספרי תורה . They left the actual ספרי תורה in the shul. The king was very pleased to see the אידן honor him so much.
Everything would have been fine if not for a man named Marcus. Marcus did not like the אידן , and he wanted to make trouble for them. He wanted the king to not like the אידן as well.
Marcus somehow found out that the אידן greeted the king with empty תורה cases. He convinced the king that the אידן meant to make fun of him by doing this, and the king became very angry.
Marcus suggested that the king force all of the אידן to leave his land. But the king was a fair man, and he would not give such a harsh punishment without first giving them a chance. He told Marcus that, at the next parade, Marcus would ride next to the king. Marcus would be able to open the תורה cases. If they were empty, Marcus could do what he wanted to the אידן . If Marcus was not telling the truth, then he would be punished.
Marcus, who was sure that he was right, happily agreed. He was so excited to ride next to the king and get his chance to make trouble for the אידן . Marcus could not wait.
The אידן heard that the king was having another parade. They happily prepared the תורה covers to bring out when they greeted the king. They took the ספרי תורה out of the covers, because it is not fitting to parade around with actual ספרי תורה .
The night before the parade, the שמש – the caretaker - of the main shul in town could not fall asleep. He had a feeling that something bad was going to happen to the אידן . Finally, he fell asleep, and he had a dream. He dreamed that an old man came to him and warned him of danger. The man told him to hurry to the shul and put the ספרי תורה back in their cases! The man also warned him to keep this a secret.
The שמש quickly woke up, threw on some clothes, and ran to the shul. He secretly put the ספרי תורה back in the cases, and waited to see what would happen.
The שמש did not know that all the שמשים in the city had the same dream. Every one of them had run to his shul and put the ספרי תורה back in their cases.
The next morning, all of the אידן went out to greet the king at the parade, holding the תורה cases. Marcus, who was sitting next to the king, suggested that the king open up the cases to see what was inside. The אידן were all terrified; what would the king say when he saw that the cases were empty? But they had to listen to the king.
They opened the cases and, to their surprise, the ספרי תורה were inside!
The king was furious with Marcus for tricking him. The king punished Marcus, and he rewarded the אידן for being so loyal to him. The אידן did not have to pay any taxes for three years.
When the אידן found out the full story, they were so happy. They thanked ה‘ for saving them, and celebrated the day when this happened as a “mini-Purim.”
This is the story of the פורים of Saragossa.
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Level 1:
Chanie and Mendel Baron, ages 5 & 7 from Sunny Isles Beach, Florida
Level 2:
Menachem Mendel Wolowik, age 9 from Los Angelesm California &
Moshe Sasonkin, age 12 from Akron, OH
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