Thursday, April 7, 2011

Why 3 Nisan is Mesugal for Parnasa

Received by email from DF and posted with his permission. I made small adjustments to make it readable online.
It is known that the day of 3 Nissan is mesugal for parnasa.  The source for this is Sefer Chaim V'Sholom (Vayeitzei), from the Munkatcher Rov (the Minchas Elazar) who says he heard from the Reb Yechezkel Shraga of Shiniva (Divrei Yechezkel) that the day of 3 Nisan, when the Nasi of Zevulon is read, is mesugal for parnasa and ashirus. This sounds like any one of the other numerous segulas for parnasa. That's why I think it's a disservice to tell anyone this without also telling them what it says before that on the very same page.

 

He starts off the page (here is the link to the page so you can see it; this is my understanding of it) by explaining thatולזבולן אמר שמח זבולן בצאתך  means that through Zevulon's הוצאות (hinted by בצאתך) for Torah (his giving money to Yissachar so he can learn Torah) the Torah is his reward, but Zevulon will also be happy (שמח) in this world immediately since he needs to make more money in order to support talmidei chachomim. (See link for the rest) This seems to be the lesson we should take out of it. By supporting people who learn Torah – everyone according to their means – we can be worthy of getting parnasa. This should get those people that speak disparagingly of talmidei chachomim that are supported to stop doing so, as really the talmidei chachmim are doing the giver a favor.

 

If I may add: שמח זבולן is equal to באמת, hinting at dealing honestly. שמח זבולן is also meramez to simcha being mesugal for parnasa. Reb Nosson Breslover once told someone with financial troubles that simcha is mesugal for paranasa. The man replied that it was difficult to be happy in his present situation. Reb Nosson responded: "But, what won't a person do for parnasa?" (The same story is told over with the Yismach Yisroel of Alexander) Reb Mendel Riminover says a remez to simcha being mesugal for parnaas is the last letters of פותח את ידך and והיית אך שמח are the same and they are a Name connected to parnasa. If I may add, the first letters of שמח זבולן are equal to the first letters of והיית אך שמח. This is also meramez in the Mishna: איזה הוא עשיר השמח בחלקו. How does one become an עשיר? השמח בחלקו – by being happy with one's lot.

 

זבולן equals המן reminding us of פרשת המן. Leah said regarding זבולן that Hashem gave her a זבד טוב. Rashi says that this means as Onkelos translates it, חלק טב – "a good portion." The gematria of חלק is equal to הצלחה. The word זבולן in א״ת ב״ש is עשפכט, equal to 479 – the gematria of בזעת, as in בזעת אפיך תאכל לחם. The last letters of שמח זבולן בצאתך equal לחם. This posuk teaches us that although there are people that seem to amass great wealth without breaking a sweat, the posuk is teaching that if one thinks בזעת אפיך, meaning one's own efforts are what makes - as the posuk says: ואמרת בלבבך כחי ועצם ידי עשה לי את החיל הזה - then no matter how much one may have it's never enough (as Chazal teach that if one has 100 he wants 200). Then despite all you may have, תאכל לחם, it seems like you only have bread. The gematria of בזעת with the kolel is equal to the last letters of ואמרת בלבבך כחי ועצם ידי. The posuk then says:  עד שובך אל האדמה כי ממנה לקחת כי עפר אתה ואל עפר תשוב - which can be read as: until he does teshuva and realizes that he is just dust and powerless, as Avrohom Avinu said: ואנכי עפר ואפר – "I am but dust and ashes". When someone comes to the realization that every single great idea and every single penny comes only from Hashem, (as is hidden in the pesukim, אפיך is equal to אלף, which alludes to Hashem who is One and the אלופו של עולם and the first letters of כחי ועצם equal 26, Hashem's Name) then even if he only has bread, he feels like he has everything, as the Mishna says: איזה הוא עשיר השמח בחלקו. He is then taken out of the curse of  בזעת אפיך תאכל לחם. Hashem is saying אפיך, meaning "(by the sweat of) your face". When you take the ך off to make it אפי which would be referring to Hashem, then you have the first letters of פותח את ידך – we ask Hashem to "open His hand" since we can't do anything on our own. We can then realize there is only One that controls everything, as בזעת אפיך תאכל לחם is equal to שמע ישראל ד׳ אלקינו ד׳ אחד with the kolel.

 

Rashi on the words, בזעת אפיך, says: לאחר שתטריח בו הרבה – "after you toil a lot." But many toil and barely put food on the table? לאחר שתטריח - "After you toil" can mean two things: 1) After you are done with thinking that your own toil makes parnasa. 2) Reading it with a comma לאחר שתטריח, בו הרבה.  After toiling hard by working on your emunah, thenבו הרבה . This doesn't mean quantity, rather quality. There will be lots of shefa; the money will come from the side of kedusha, as opposed to one who thinks he gets money on his own has the money coming from the "other side." A remez to this is that בו הרבה is the same gematria as טהור.

 

The Munkatcher Rov shows how the Name of זבולן is equal to 95 which will be equal to the Names of Hashem – י־ק־י־ק אדנ׳ - when Moshiach comes. After he speaks about the segula for parnasa, he says that we should understand that Nisan is a time of Geula. Exactly what he means I don't know, but as Rav Gamliel Rabinovitz shlita constantly says we need parnasa to live but we should remember that Hashem has no house, no wife (we are in golus), most of his children don't know how to say Shema. He says that Hashem doesn't even have bread, so to speak, as we say in korbonos: את קרבני לחמי. He says that besides constantly saying: "give me, give me", we should ask Hashem to rebuild His house.

 

We should all remember that the brocha of parnasa on this day comes from supporting talmidei chachomim. May we all be zoche to have parnasa berevach and do good things it, and may we be zoche to realize what we are missing without Hashem's House so we can daven properly for its rebuilding.

 

Friday, April 1, 2011

Remazim to Rebbe Nachman of Breslov - His Birthday

The following is Part 1 of remazim to Rebbe Nachman of Breslov from Remez L'Nachal put together by DF who last wrote Remazim to the Noam Elimelech. I have permission to post it but it's too much to post at one time so the rest will be posted in the future. If anyone would like the full version emailed to them, send me an email.
 
The Rebbe's Birthday

 

The Rebbe was born on Shabbos Hachodesh/Rosh Chodesh Nisan. There is a source that says it was the year 5531, but Reb Nosson says that the truth seems to be that it was the year 5532. (Chaye Mohoran 104; in both years Rosh Chodesh Nissan fell on Shabbos) If I may suggest, there is an amazing remez to it being the year 5532, as this would make the date of the Rebbe's birth, א׳ ניסן תקל״ב – exactly equal to 703, the gematria of נחמן בר שמחה. This would mean that his bris took place on ח׳ ניסן תקל״ב, which is equal to 710 - the gematria of נחמן spelled out, נון חית מם נון.

 

On this Shabbos we read החדש הזה לכם ראש חדשים ראשון הוא לכם לחדשי השנה. The lesson of the Jewish calendar is that after the moon seems to disappear, it reappears and becomes full again. This can help us understand one of the most famous sayings of the Rebbe. He said: אין שום יאוש בעולם כלל - there is absolutely no despair; no matter how low a person falls, materially or spiritually, there is always hope. Just like the moon seems to disappear and then a short time later it becomes a full moon again, so too a person has the potential to rise from the lowest level to the highest. This is alluded to beautifully from החדש הזה לכם. The word החדש is the exact gematria of יאוש, despair. Then it says הזה לכם, meaning this is a lesson for you that teaches instead of giving up hope, take a lesson from the moon and turn the יאוש into החדש, by starting fresh - התחדשות. Also הזה is the gematria of טוב, which could now be read as טוב לכם, as we are instructed (in Azamra, LM 282) to look for the "good points" in ourselves as well as others.

 

If we add an א for Hashem to יאוש then it equals שיח (tefila), an allusion to hisbodedus. Another allusion to this can be found in the first letters of החדש הזה לכם, which equal 40, the gematria of לְבָדָד. Reb Ephroimel Krakofsky in Sefer Oneg Shabbos (Parshas Balak) says that when it says הן עם לבדד ישכן (Balak 23:9), לבדד refers to hisbodedus and ישכן is the gematria of השעה, referring to the one hour that Likutei Mohoran II, 25 says one should engage in hisbodedus.

 

The Rebbe is alluded to by last letters ofהחדש הזה לכם , which spell משה, who was the midah of נצח and Kochvei Ohr explains that it is the same gematria as נחמן and that is why the Rebbe always had the fourth aliyah which represents נצח. Also his yarzeit is on the fourth day of Succos, the Ushpizin of Moshe Rabbeinu which corresponds to Netzach. If I may add: the portion read of Parshas Hachodesh when read in Parshas Bo falls out in the fourth aliyah.

 

החדש הזה לכם is equal to the gematria of משיח בן דוד, alluding to "my fire will burn till Moshiach comes" and to his saying that Moshiach will come from him. (Chaye Mohoran 229; 274; 612) It can also allude to his saying the main avodah of a Yid is to say Tikun Chatzos. (Sichos Haran 301)

 

לחדשי השנה equals the gematria of רבי נתן. With the kollel it equals נחמן בר שמחה with the letters.

 

רבי נחמן is equal to השנה.

ראש חדשים equals ראש השנה with the 2 words.

 

The first Rashi in Bereishis says that the Torah could have started from החדש הזה לכם, and says ומה טעם, what is the reason that we start from Bereishis. The ו of ומה represents the sixth midah of יסוד. מה טעם equals 164, the amount of pesukim in Tikun Haklali.

 

Rashi goes on to say we start from Bereishis because כח מעשיו הגיד לעמו לתת להם נחלת גוים. This could be read as the "strength of a story", alluding to the Rebbes saying that we tell stories to wake people up. לתת להם נחלת could allude to the Rebbe as in נחל נבע מקור חכמה. We need to get out of our slumber and then we can work on the Hischadshus of Parshas Hachodesh.

 

One of the ways the word בראשית is broken up is ירא שבת. The tzadik is referred to as שבת. The gematria of רבי נחמן בר שמחה equals ירא שבת plus the two words.

 

He was the greatest of those giving encouragement to people, hinted to by ראש חדשים, the head of those teaching hischadshus. I told this over to Reb Shloime Cheshin and he added thatראש חדשים  can mean that the Rebbe was the "greatest of all Chidushim", as he himself said that he was a "chidush".

 

החדש הזה לכם these 10 letters, representative of the 10 Tehilim of Tikun Haklali are a chiddush for you. There are also 10 words in the posuk.

 

There are 38 words in the posuk, equal to the age of the Rebbe when he passed away.

 

Of course Parshas Hachodesh goes on to discuss the Korban Pesach, and as known פסח is the gematria of נחמן.

 

Tazria

The day the Rebbe was born was Shabbos, Rosh Chodesh and the day Parshas Tazria is read, which speaks about Bris Milah. These are the three things that the Greeks wanted us to get rid of. As is known, the Rebbe was vehemently opposed to anyone learning "Greek wisdom", and for that matter any chakira even if written by tzadikim. The first letters of ש׳בת מ׳ילה ח׳דש spell שמח the root of the word שמחה. The Rebbe was the son of שמחה; he passed away on חג השמחה; he was born following two months of Adar in a leap year; he was born on Rosh Chodesh Nissan when we are supposed to have in mind by Mussaf the posuk: ישמחו השמים ותגל הארץ (as brought in Bnei Yisaschor, Rosh Chodesh 1:11 and Nissan 1:1) Of course, he is famous for his teachings of שמחה. Perhaps the most famous is the song sung by everyone that comes from the opening line of Likutei Mohoran II, 24: מצוה גדולה להיות בשמחה תמיד.

 

Tazria has 67 pesukim, equal to בינה. Kochvei Ohr discusses how this is equal toנחמן בן שמחה (553) when spelled bimiluy בית יוד נון הי.  67 is also equal to אלול, which is the preparation for Rosh Hashona – the Rebbe's essence. He also says that the kavanos of Elul are Tikun Habris (Likutei Mohoran II, 87) which he speaks about at length. אלול spelled bimiluyאלף למד ויו למד- with the letters and kolel equal נחמן בן פיגא.

 

The day he was born Tazria was read. The third posuk says וביום השמיני ימול בשר ערלתו. The word ערלתו is equal to נחמן בר שמחה with the 3 words, meaning that on the eighth day from now, the Rebbe would have his Bris Milah. Also, Kedushas Habris is the subject the Rebbe spoke  a lot about and revealed the 10 chapters of Tehilim, Tikun Haklali, that rectify pegam habris.

 

If one is in the lowest spiritual state, but searches out Hashem, saying איה מקום כבודו – "where is Hashem's glory", then this itself can help pull him out of his low state and bring him to the highest level. This is the aspect of ואיה השה לעלה. (Likutei Mohoran II, 12) Based on this, we can see a hint from the posuk:ואם לא תמצא ידה די שה ולקחה שתי תרים או שני בני יונה אחד לעלה ואחד לחטאת וכפר עליה הכהן וטהרה. (12:8)

 

ואם לא תמצא ידה די שה – If a person can't even search out Hashem by saying איה מקום כבודו which is the aspect of ואיה השה לעלה. Then ולקחה שתי תרים או שני בני יונה – take the advice of the Rebbe, meramez by שתי, which is equal to 710 - the gematria of נחמן spelled out, נון חית מם נון, and the next word, תרים, is equal to הצדיק אמת. שני is equal to רבי נחמן. יונה spelled out bimiluy יוד וו נון הה - equal to נחמן. Take the advice of אחד לעלה ואחד לחטא which is meramez to Likutei Mohoran 6 (kavanos of Elul), which speaks about serving Hashem in an ascent (לעלה) or descent (לחטאת). Even in the ascent, the Rebbe says one needs to do teshuva on the previous teshuva, and even in the lowest place one Hashem is there with us. We need to search Him out and strengthen ourselves. Thenוכפר עליה הכהן וטהרה – the tzadik will help us get forgiveness taharah by teaching us how to act.

 

As mentioned, יונה spelled out bimiluy יוד וו נון הה - equal to נחמן. This could give more meaning to the song sung by people yearning to get to the kever of the Rebbe in Uman: מי יתן לי עבר כיונה אעופה ציון הקודש אומנה. Also, אומנה has the same letters as אמונה.
 

Remazim from Likutei Mohoran II, 74

 

The Rebbe says that after Purim we read Parshas Parah, which is a preparation for Pesach. Purim is the way to Pesach, and Purim enables us to be protected from chometz on Pesach. This is seen from the posuk: את חג המצות תשמר שבעת ימים תאכל מצות כאשר צויתך למועד חדש האביב כי בו יצאת ממצרים ולא יראו פני ריקם. (Mishpatim 23:15) The first letters of ממצרים ולא יראו פני ריקם spell פורים. He then makes a cryptic statement: "In the beginning all beginnings were from Pesach, and therefore all mitzvos were 'zecher litziyas Mitzrayim'. ועכשב - And now…"

 

The author of Be'ibay Hanachal, Reb Boruch Ephraim of Homil, shows some fascinating hints in this. He says that נחמן equals פסח, so ועכשב means that now by coming to the Rebbe for Rosh Hashona one can make a new beginning, as ראש is also a beginning. The Rebbe says that פורים is from the word פרה stands for פסח ראש השנה. The Parah Adumah made the pure impure and the impure pure. So too, when one goes to the Rebbe's kever in Uman, he becomes tamei from the thousands of kedoshim buried there. However, through saying Tehilim, Tachanunim from the depths of the heart, and especially the ten chapters of i (Tikun Haklali) that the Rebbe instructed us to say, the tamei become tahor. There, we start new in our Avodas Hashem, which is the aspect of leaving Mitzrayim – leaving the tumah and being zoche to accept the Torah with a new beginning.

 

If I may humbly add: Originally all beginnings were from פורים which is a preparation for Pesach, the first letters of ממצרים ולא יראו פני ריקם. "And now" they start from the last letters of these very same words which equal אומן exactly. Also, פורים bimiluy פא וו ריש יוד מם - is equal to 703, the gematria of נחמן בר שמחה. פרה is equal to נחמן מאומן. ולא יראו פני ריקם can hint at the Rebbe saying "no one should be missing" from his Rosh Hashona. ריקם is equal to רב נחמן.