Room one hundred and seven in the hall of Hayom Yom.
Sunday, 7 Adar II 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, here we begin a new sefer - Vayikra. Sunday, first parshah with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, the 7th of the month, from chapter 39 to chapter 43 inclusive.
Tanya, we begin a new chapter - chapter 36 - from the beginning of the chapter, from the word "Vehineh". The daily shiur concludes on page 90 with the words "ve'afsi od".
The daily teaching is taken from a sichah of the Rebbe Rayatz on the night of Simchas Torah in the year 5691. This is a sequence of many teachings brought in Hayom Yom quite a few times, regarding the concept that a person must, wherever he finds himself - in the street, in business, on the train and in all sorts of situations - always have words of Torah in his thought and speech; and sometimes it is specified that this should be a verse of Chumash or Tehillim and the like. The daily teaching, whose source is in Yiddish and is of course translated here, also revolves around these matters.
"When walking in the street, one must ponder words of Torah, in thought or in speech" - when walking in the street one must think words of Torah, whether in thought or in speech. First he says that one must think, but immediately adds that sometimes this can only be in thought, and if possible - it should also be in speech. And what does it depend on whether it will be in thought or in speech? "Depending on the conditions of the place, if it is permissible, according to law, to speak words of Torah." The matter depends on whether the place where you are located is a place where, according to Halachah, it is permitted to articulate words of Torah with one's mouth. There are filthy places and the like, where it is written in the Shulchan Aruch that it is forbidden to speak words of Torah with one's mouth - and in such a place, only in thought; and there are places where even in thought it is difficult.
"But if one walks and is not engaged in words of Torah - the stone upon which he treads hurls at him: Bulach (golem), why are you stepping on me? In what way is your superiority over me?!" If a person walks in the street and is not actively engaged in words of Torah, in thought or in speech, the very stone upon which he steps speaks to him and clamors against him: Why are you stepping on me? In what way are you higher than me?
[In the source where these words are written there is an addition of a sentence or two that are sharper, which the Rebbe omitted in the quotation: that the stone says to him not only "Why are you stepping on me?", but added "Who are you anyway?", and afterwards: "Why shouldn't I step on you?". These sentences were said in the sichah, but the Rebbe omitted them in Hayom Yom].
There is also an addition in the sichah of the Rebbe Rayatz, that if one walks in the street and does not think words of Torah - one delays the Geulah, Heaven forbid; and if one walks in the street and thinks words of Torah - one brings the Geulah closer. This is the continuation of the words of the Rebbe Rayatz there.
It is interesting that we had an earlier teaching, on 27 Adar I, which was also "in the style" of the daily teaching; except that there it did not speak about the stone shouting, but rather that the stones and the earth wait thousands of years for someone to pass over them and think words of Torah upon them - and why then miss the opportunity? This was on 27 Adar I in a teaching along these lines.
As for the connection between the daily teaching and this day - perhaps it can be said that it is connected to the beginning of chapter 36 in Tanya, which we begin to learn on this day. Chapter 36 is one of the fundamental chapters, in which the Alter Rebbe explains that the Holy One, blessed be He, desired to have for Himself a dwelling place in the lower realms - in the lowest possible realm, in the darkest place - to permeate it with Godliness; this is our purpose. And this is essentially the entire subject of the teaching: walking on the physical stone and in the street must be with the thought or speech of words of Torah. This is the goal, and for this purpose the stone was created in the first place; otherwise the stone says "what right do you have to step on me". This is the sharp, simple, and obligating message in the daily teaching.
And we will conclude with a connection to the cycle of the Rambam's Yad HaChazakah books. We are currently at a hint to Sefer Zeraim, and we already had a teaching connected by a hint to the laws of Kilayim. It can be said that the daily teaching also has a hint to the laws of Kilayim, since the common ground between the laws of Kilayim and the daily teaching is that in both of them it speaks about the relationship between man and the earth beneath him: in the laws of Kilayim - regarding what is forbidden or permitted to sow in the earth, and in the daily teaching - how a person must tread upon the earth. In this there can be a hint to a connection with the laws of Kilayim.