Parshas Vayeira
Cheshvan 16 5765
Volume 2
Issue 4
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PARSHAS VAYEIRA
"Girls," said Morah Feinstein, "today, I would like to discuss one of the animals mentioned in the story of the akeidah."
"The ayil?" suggested Leah.
Morah Feinstein shook her head, "That is the ram that was sacrificed instead of Yitzchak. But I was actually referring to another animal."
The girls looked through the pessukim. "I know," Miriam called out. "It's the chamor, the donkey, which Avraham took along. He harnessed it by himself to show Hashem how eager he was to fulfill His command."
"Good," said Morah Feinstein. "That's just what we are going to learn about today. Now, what did Avraham use his donkey for?"
"To carry the bundles of wood and the knife," answered Chayah.
"In other words, the chamor didn't carry Avraham or Yitzchak. It carried only the items which Avraham was planning to use for the akeidah. Yet often, people use donkeys not only to carry their packages, but for riding. When you study Chumash Shmos, you will come across a passuk that describes how Moshe Rabbeinu used a chamor to carry his wife and children when he went to mitzrayim.
"And then we know about a chamor who carries not the wife and children, but the person himself."
"The chamor of Mashiach!" the girls all called out together.
Morah Feinstein nodded. "Chamor stands for chumriyus - material things, the gashmiyus that we have all around us. Our neshamos are not gashmiyus. Our neshamos are ruchniyus - spiritual. Our neshamos are sent down into this world for a purpose: to uplift the gashmiyus and show how it is all here to be used to serve Hashem.
"Using the chamor to carry things means that we are using the chumriyus, the gashmiyus, to serve ruchniyus. This teaches what a Jew should accomplish in this world.
"Avraham Avinu was the one who began this avodah. The way he used the chamor to carry his bundles shows us that he was using gashmiyus to help him fulfill Hashem's command. Avraham's journey was only the first time in history that this type of avodah was performed. That's why so very little was put on top of the chamor - only the items he needed for the akeidah.
"Moshe Rabbeinu placed his wife and children on the chamor. People who are close to you are much more important than tools. This shows that in the many years that had passed since Avraham, at the time close to Matan Torah, a lot had been accomplished in the task of using gashmiyus to serve Hashem. By then, it was people who were on the chamor, not items.
"Still, we were talking about Moshe's family, not Moshe himself. This shows that the world still had to work harder and longer to 'be on top of the chamor' and make more ruchniyus out of gashmiyus by using it to serve Hashem.
"When describing the geulah, our sages tell us that Mashiach himself will ride atop the chamor. Then the gashmiyus of our world will be fully used for ruchniyus."
‘Please Tell Me What the Rebbe Said’ (Adapted from Likkutei Sichos, Vol. I)
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PEACE AND AN ANIMAL THAT LIVES IN THE FOREST
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Please send your answers to connections@shluchim.org Last weeks’ brain buster: My head and tail are yes, my middle is moving. Answer: כנען |
Congratulations to Tanny Rapoport, age 12 from Vineland, NJ for solving the Brain Buster! |
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Dear Tzeirei Hashluchim,
Did you know that your fellow Tzeirei Hashluchim like to read articles that you wrote? Together with your brothers and sisters, you can write an article about your family and your shlichus, or any of the topics below, to be published our Chanukah Edition of “Kids Connect”.
1 grand winner (Featured Chabad House)
5 1st place winners
10 2nd place winners1. Featured Chabad House
Use the questions below to help you. Try to be original.
1. What is the name of the city and country where you live? What language is spoken there?
2. What is the weather like?
3. How big is your Chabad House? What does it look like?
4. What programs do your parents do?
5. What is your most favorite program on shlichus? How do you help?
6. Where do you go to school? What do you learn?
7. What types of games do you like to play? What hobby do you enjoy most?
8. Are you friends with any other Tzeirei Hashluchim and where do they live?
9. What do you do that makes you proud to be a shliach?2. כסלו—א חסידישע חודש
חסידישע ימים טובים in חודש כסלו:
a. ראש חודש כסלו
b. ב‘ כסלו
c. ט‘ & י‘ כסלו
d. י“ג כסלו
e. י“ד כסלו
f. י“ט כסלו3. A Chossid’s הכנה for י“ט כסלו
ראש השנה לחסידות4. חנוכה
a. Story of Chanukah
b. Chanukah on Shlichus
c. Describe Chanukah functions in your city
d. post a picture of Public Menorah
e. Chanukah Fun Page5. Coming to Crown Heights for the כינוס השלוחים.
Deadline for submissions:
Sunday - December 11, י‘ כסלו
All entries should be e-mailed to:
connections@shluchim.org.
Levi Yitschok Heintz,
Utrecht, Netherlands
My name is Levi Yitschok Heintz and I live in Utrecht, which is in Holland.
In Holland we speak Dutch. It rains a lot here. Our house is the Chabad House. My parents make parties for פורים and other ימים טובים and my father gives שיעורים. I like to help people who cannot daven so well. I’m the oldest at home and I help watch my little brothers and with the cooking. I go to the חדר in Amsterdam and I learn חומש, משנה, קיצור שולחן ערוך, יהושע and גמרא. I also enjoy playing football and handball. There are 5 other ילדי השלוחים in my class. Each שבת I say a דבר תורה from the Connections newsletter.
This summer I went with my big brother Shneour Zalman to Gan Yisroel summer camp in Holland. The picture above is from then. It was in Ermelo which is a very small town in Holland. I had a great time. There was a trampoline, a very big football field and there was also bowling there. Every day we first had line up and said the י“ב פסוקים and אני מאמין. Then we davened with a מנין which is very special for me because in Utrecht we only have מנין on שבתmorning. The whole camp went to a benefit concert of Avraham Fried for the sick children of זכרון מנחם. We all wore our blue camp t-shirts and sang and danced with Avraham Fried on the stage.
I am looking forward to come to New York with my father for the כינוס צעירי השלוחים. I was only in New York once - when I went with my mother to the כינוס השלוחות when I was 2. I very much like the farbrengens by phone. Last time, me and my brothers said one פסוק together.
והנה שלשה אנשים נצבים עליו
When the Torah tells us that the מלאכים came to אברהם, they are called אנשים - men. But when they go to לוט in סדום they are called מלאכים. This is because אברהם was a צדיק and very great in the מצוה of הכנסת אורחים. To him it made absolutely no difference who a guest was. Even if the guest was just an ordinary person, אברהם would take him into his home, treat him with the greatest respect, and give him the best of everything.
לוט was different. When an important person would come to town, לוט would take him into his home because it was an honor for him to have important people visiting. If a simple person would come to town and he wouldn’t gain anything by taking him in, לוט would not bother with him at all. Therefore, when לוט saw that the visitors were מלאכים and that it would be an honor for him to have such guests, only then did he invite them to his house.
‘Vedibarta Bam’
כ' חשון is the birthday of the רבי רש"ב
כ‘ חשון is the birthday the רש“ב, ר‘ שלום דובער. His parents were the רבי מהר“ש and רבצין רבקה. He was born at nine o’clock in the morning in the town of Lubavitch.
רבצין רבקה had two dream during the previous year, in which her mother, grandfather, the מיטעלער רבי, and the אלטיער רבי visited her. She was instructed to write a ספר תורה and that she would have a fine son. On י“ג חשון, the ספר תורה was completed in secret.
When the רבי רש“ב was three years old, he had his upshernish and the צמח צדק “anointed” him to be a leader of the Chasidic movement. The צמח צדק explained that a jug of spiritual oil was handed down from the בעש“ט to the מגיד ממעזריטש to anoint the אלטער רבי and his descendants. The רבי רש“ב was then taken to חדר for the first time and the צמח צדק threw candies at him.
‘Days in Chabad’
When the רבי רש“ב was about four or five years old, he walked into the study room his זיידע the צמח צדק crying. The צמח צדק lovingly calmed his grandson and asked him, "Why are you crying, my child?"
"זיידע," he cried, "I just learned in חדר that Hashem appeared אברהם אבינו. Why doesn't He appear to us, too?"
"My dear grandson," explained the צמח צדק, "When a ninety-nine year old איד, a צדיק, decides to have a ברית at this age then he deserves to have Hashem appear to him."
Children often burst into tears when they do not get what they want. But are those things really worth crying about?
We can see from this story what a Jewish child should insist upon, and what could bring him to the point of tears.
Every איד has a נשמה which is part of HaShem. Because of that נשמה, a איד, and especially a child, wants to actually see קדושה, not only to be told about it. The רבי רש“ב’s example teaches every child to desire and ask for this.
This is especially true today when there are so many signs that משיח is coming soon. When the גאולה comes, we will be able to see Hashem's קדושה all around us. Just like the רבי רש“ב cried for something he really wanted, we should cry out to Hashem and insist that He bring the גאולה now!
When we cry out and demand the גאולה, we may have tears in our eyes, but these are not tears of sorrow or sadness. We are crying in determination, because we want it very much. But we have a happy feeling in our hearts, because we know that it is coming very soon.
Please Tell Me What the Rebbe Said, (Adapted from Sichos Shabbos Parshas Vayeira, 5752)
As a small child, ר‘ זלמן אהרן (the רז“א), the older brother of ר‘ שלום דובער (the רבי רש“ב), often complained that he was shorter than his younger brother.
One day, the רז“א sneaked up behind his brother and pushed him lightly into a small ditch. As the רבי רש“ב stood up in surprise, the רז“א seized the moment and pointed out that now he was taller.
The רבי מהר“ש, the father of the two boys, watched all this. The רבי asked for a chair, ordered the רז“א to stand on it, and asked him, “Tell me, who’s taller now?”
The רז“א answered excitedly that yet again he was taller.
“Aha!” said ר‘ שמואל. “There you are! To be bigger than your friend, there is no need to pull him down. Simply make yourself taller!”
When the רבי רש“ב forcefully spoke out against the Zionist movement, and especially after he wrote an extremely sharp public letter against it, some of the חסידים were worried that if he were to continue criticising the Zionists like this, they may try to strike back and try to harm him.
Realizing that it was disrespectful to tell the רבי that they thought he should stop, they decided to speak instead to his mother, רביצין רבקה, and persuade her to “advise” the רבי to stop.
After hearing what they wanted, רביצין רבקה replied in astonishment, “You want me to tell him what to do! I will never tell him to change his mind. Obviously you don’t realize how glaiche his mind is.”
She then told the following story: When the רבי רש“ב was a young boy, he and his older brother ר‘ זלמן אהרן (the רז“א) would visit their grandfather the צמח צדק every day.
It happened that one day his brother the רז“א couldn’t find his shtreimel, it was the custom in בית הרב that the children wore a shtreimel when they entered in יחידות, so the רבי רש“ב went alone.
His grandfather, the צמח צדק, picked him up and placed him on his lap for a long period of time. He then gave him a coin of five kopecks and a kiss.
Coming home, he excitedly announced for everyone to hear that on that day when he went by himself, in addition to receiving the usual coin, his grandfather also kissed him.
Understandably, his brother ר‘ זלמן אהרן was extremely upset to have missed this special occasion, and he angrily grabbed the coin out of his brother’s hand.
The רבי רש“ב cried out, “You can grab the coin זיידע gave me, but not the kiss.”
Realizing that he did something wrong, ר‘ זלמן אהרן handed back the coin. However the רבי רש“ב refused to accept it, saying, “You keep the coin; I keep the kiss.”
רביצין רבקה then said to the חסידים, “If at that young age he was able to understand the difference between a coin and a kiss, how can one possibly think that now when he is רבי he doesn’t understand what he is to do?! So I should give him advice?”Rabbi Sholom D. Avtzon, based on what he heard from his father, Shmais.com
See the printable version of Connections for incredible fun pages!
Last Week’s Winners:
Level 1:
Yisroel Slonim, age 8 from Vestal, NY &
Mendel Posner, age 10 from Rancho Mirage, CA
Level 2:
Motti Diskin, age 9 from Munich, Germany &
Sheina Litvin, age 11 from Louisville, Kentucky
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