בס״ד

TORAHParshat AchareiWEEKLY Mot - 2 21 - 27 April, Day 3: Numbers MOSHIACH’S this meal, with an open CHOL 2019 28:19-25 MEAL door, allowing anyone HAMOED 16 - 22 Nissan, who wished to partake. Thursday WHAT AND WHY. The sixth Luba- Of the eight days 5779 FIRST : What Is the Moshiach’s of Passover, the first two Chol Hamoed vitcher explained Day 4: Numbers Meal? that on the last day of and the last two are “yom Sunday (Torah Following a tov” (festival days). The reading) 9:1-14 Passover the radiance FIRST TORAH: SECOND TO- tradition instituted by the of Moshiach is already middle four days are cal- Pesach Day 2: RAH: Baal Shem Tov, Jews all shining. led chol hamoed--”week- Chol Hamoed Leviticus 22:26 - over the world celebra- When Is the Moshiach’s days of the festival,” also 23:44 Day 4: Numbers 28:19-25 te the waning hours of Meal called “the intermediate SECOND TO- Passover with Moshiach’s days.” (In Israel, where RAH: Moshiach’s Meal Pesach Day 2: Friday Meal (Moshiach’s Seu- is held following Min- Passover is observed for Numbers 28:19- FIRST TORAH: dah in Yiddish), a feast chah (the afternoon ser- seven days, the first and Shviee Shel 25 celebrating the Divine vice) on the eighth day of last days are yom tov, and : Pesach: Exodus 13:17 - 15:26 revelation yet to come. Passover. In Israel, where the middle five days are Kings II 23:1-9; chol hamoed). Kings II 23:21- SECOND TO- Passover is seven days 25 RAH: Why Do We Celebrate long, Moshiach’s Meal is The yom tov days Shviee Shel Pe- This Meal? held on the seventh day. are days of rest, during sach: Numbers Monday On the last day of The celebration which all creative work FIRST TORAH: 28:19-25 HAFTARAH: Passover, we read verses customarily extends is forbidden, as it is on Chol Hamoed from the book of Isaiah the , with the Day 1: Exodus Samuel II 22:1- past nightfall, ushering 13:1-16 51 as the haftorah (Isaiah out Passover amid song, exception of certain types SECOND TO- 10:32-126.). This reading words of Torah and inspi- of work associated with Shabbat RAH: includes many wondrous ration. food preparation (e.g., Chol Hamoed FIRST TORAH: Achron Shel Pe- prophecies about the era How Is the Moshiach’s cooking and “carrying”). Day 1: Numbers of Moshiach. On chol hamoed the 28:19-25 sach: Deuterono- Meal Celebrated? my 14:22 - 16:17 The prophecy In 1906 prohibition of work is less Tuesday SECOND TO- foretells of a leader upon Shalom Dov Ber of Lu- stringent--work whose RAH: FIRST TORAH: whom “the spirit of the bavitch incorporated four avoidance would result in Chol Hamoed Achron Shel Pe- sach: Numbers L‑rd shall rest, a spirit of cups of wine and matzah “significant loss” is per- Day 2: Exodus wisdom and understan- mitted (except when chol 22:24 - 23:19 28:19-25 into Moshiach’s Meal, SECOND TO- HAFTARAH: ding, a spirit of counsel mirroring the Seder held hamoed is also Shabbat, RAH: Isaiah 10:32 - and heroism, a spirit of the week before. You can when all work is forbid- 12:6 Chol Hamoed knowledge and fear of the also serve fruit and other den). Day 2: Numbers L‑rd.” The “Yaale V’ya- 28:19-25 * Although the Passover goodies. weekly Torah In addition to If you will be vo” prayer is included Wednesday portion is Acharei bringing peace to man- celebrating with a group in all prayers and Grace FIRST TORAH: Mot, the reading kind (“he will judge the (this is often done in the After Meals. (par- Chol Hamoed for Passover is poor justly, and he shall tial) and Musaf are reci- read. synagogue) you can have Day 3: Exodus chastise with equity the people prepare stories or ted following the Shacha- 34:1-26 humble of the earth”), the rit (morning) prayers. It is SECOND TO- Torah thoughts related RAH: new peace and G‑dly un- to Moshiach. The actual the custom not to Chol Hamoed derstanding will extend program is flexible, but put on during the to all of G‑d’s creatures: you want to pace your “intermediate days”. ALEPH INSTITUTE “And a wolf shall live four cups throughout the Omer Hyman & Martha Rogal Center with a lamb, and a leo- singing and speaking. Between the holi- 5804 Beacon Street pard shall lie with a kid . Customarily, the leader days of Passover and Sha- Pittsburgh, PA 15217 . . and a small child shall of the group announces vuot, the Omer is counted 412-421-0111 lead them.” which cup you are up each evening, signifying The Baal Shem Fax: 412-521-5948 to. Note that you do not our preparation for the Tov, the founder of the need to drink these cups receiving of the Torah on www.alephne.org chassidic movement, was [email protected] in their entirety. A sip the holiday of . the first one to celebrate suffices. experience. one of Rabbi Menachem Mendel’s consultants in mat- In Jewish History ters of Jewish thought, and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Sunday, 16 Nissan, 5779 - April 21, 2019 would delegate to him many of the questions he would Sodom Overturned (1714 BCE) receive. The wicked cities of the Sodom valley, including Following his father’s passing in 1866, he relocat- Sodom, Gemorrah, Admah and Zevoim, were overtuned ed to Niezhen where he served as a chassidic master. in punishment of their sins. Only Lot, his wife and two He was interred in Niezhen next to his illustrious daughters were saved. Lot’s wife, however, turned into a grandfather, the second Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi DovBer of pillar of salt when she failed to heed the Divine warning Lubavitch. not to look back at the burning cities. Manna Ends (1273 BCE) Tuesday, , 5779 - April 16, 2019 On the 16th of Nissan of the year 2488 from Pharaoh Becomes Aware of Escape (1313 BCE) creation (1273 BCE), six days after the Children of Israel Following the Jewish nation’s grand exodus from entered the Holy Land under the leadership of Joshua, Egypt (see Jewish history for the 15th of Nissan), Pha- their remaining supply of the miraculous “bread from raoh, who only gave official permission for the Jews to to heaven,” which had sustained them since shortly after leave for three days, was informed by secret agents whom their exodus from Egypt 40 years earlier, ran out. (The he sent together with the Jews that they had no intention manna had ceased falling on the previous 7, the day of returning. of Moses’ passing.) After bringing the “Omer” offering Pharaoh decided to mobilize his army and pur- (see “” in Laws & Customs for yes- sue the Jews, with the intention of bringing them back to terday, Nissan 15) at the Sanctuary they erected at Gilgal, Egypt. This led to the drowning of the Egyptians in the the people prepared their (unleavened) bread for the first Red Sea (see Jewish history for the 21st of Nissan). time from the produce of the land. R. Levi Yitzchak Schneerson born (1878) Esther Appears Before Achashverosh (357 BCE) Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson (1878-1944), On the 3rd day of the fast proclaimed by Mor- was born on the 18th of Nissan in the town of Podrovnah dechai at her behest (see “Today in Jewish History” for (near ) to his parents, Rabbi Baruch Schneur and Nissan 13), Queen Esther appeared unsummoned before Rebbetzin Zelda Rachel Schneerson; his great-great King Achashverosh--a capital offence. The king, however, grandfather was the 3rd Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem extended the royal sceptre to her, signifying his consent Mendel of Lubavitch. that she approach him. Esther requested that Achashverosh In 1900 Rabbi Levi Yitzchak married Rebbetzin attend a private wine party with her and Haman (accord- Chanah Yanovski, whose father, Rabbi Meir Shlomo, was ing to one opinion in the Talmud, her plan was to make the rabbi of the Russian city of Nikolaiyev. In 1902, their Achashverosh jealous of her apparent friendship with eldest son, Menachem Mendel, later to be known as The Haman so that he would kill them both, thus saving the Lubavitcher Rebbe, was born. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak lived Jewish people from Haman’s decree). in Nokolaiyev until 1909, when he was appointed to serve The miracle - Haman Hanged (357 BCE) as the Rabbi of Yekatrinoslav (today, Dnepropetrovsk). At the 2nd wine party she made for King Achash- In 1939 he was arrested by the communist regime for verosh and Haman, Queen Esther revealed her identity his fearless stance against the Party’s efforts to eradicate to the king and began to plead for her people, pointing to Jewish learning and practice in the . After Haman as the evil schemer plotting to destroy them. When more than a year of torture and interrogations in Stalin’s Charvonah, a royal servant, mentioned the gallows which notorious prisons, he was sentenced to exile to the interior Haman had prepared for Mordechai, the king ordered that of Russia, where he died in 1944. Haman be hanged on them, opening the door for the Jews’ For more on Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, including the salvation from Haman’s decree (Book of Esther, chapter story of his valiant battle for Yiddishkeit, his arrest and 7). exile, see Rebbetzin Chana’s biography. Levi Born (1566 BCE) Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Brit (1902) Levi, third son of Jacob and Leah and third of the Twelve On the eighth day following his birth on the 11th Tribes, was born in Haran on 16 Nissan in the year 2195 of Nissan, the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneer- from Creation (1566 BCE) (Yalkut Shimoni, beginning of sohn of righteous memory, was entered into the covenant Shemot).Levi was the ancestor of the Levites and Priests of our Patriarch Abraham. who served in the Tabernacle and then in the Temple. He was named after his great-great-great grand- Monday, 17 Nissan, 5779 - April 22, 2019 father, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, the third Passing of the Maharin (1883) Chabad Rebbe. Rabbi Yisrael Noach, son of the third Chabad Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveichik (1993) Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, headed On the 18th of Nissan, 5753 (April 9, 1993), the yeshivah in Lubavitch during his father’s lifetime. He Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveichik, a scion of the illustrious was known for his great humility and the many hours he Volozhin-Brisk rabbinic dynasty, passed away at the age would spend praying with intense emotions and concen- of 90. tration. Known as the “Maharin from Niezhen,” he was