The one hundred twenty-sixth "room" in the hall of Hayom Yom.
Friday, 26 Adar II 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Shemini, Shishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, 26th of the month, we say the second half of chapter 119, starting from the letter Mem, which begins with the word "Mah", until the end of the chapter with the words "lo shachachti".
Tanya, in the daily shiur we conclude chapter 38. The shiur begins with the words "Ki mi", and concludes at the end of the chapter, "b'nafshoteinu kanizkar l'eil".
The daily teaching is taken from a letter by the Rebbe Rayatz, from 6 Cheshvan 5698. We do not have the letter itself in our possession, and we do not know exactly what was written in the original; we only see the quote. In this teaching, the Rebbe Rayatz details the great responsibility that the Holy One, Blessed be He, entrusted to Jewish women within the Jewish people.
Let us examine the text, how he details it. He says: "Everything holy in the nation of the G-d of Avraham" - all the holy matters in the Jewish people. "The nation of the G-d of Avraham" is an appellation for the Jewish people, and we know it from Tehillim (chapter 47, verse 10), where the phrase is "the nation of the G-d of Avraham", and the Rebbe Rayatz uses the same phrase. "And the foundation of the House of Israel" - the entire matter that leads to the foundation of the Jewish home and its establishment.
Here he specifies three things for which the great virtue given by the Holy One, Blessed be He, to Jewish women was granted. What are the three things? "In establishing a generation of the upright and their chinuch" - the first point, that the Holy One, Blessed be He, gave the power to establish an upright generation and educate it, meaning to raise the children and ensure their good chinuch. The second point - "in the kashrus of food", to check that the food is kosher. And the third point - "and the noble purity of the holiness of Shabbos", that Shabbos should be holy and noble.
To whom did the Holy One, Blessed be He, entrust the responsibility to engage and act in these three matters? "The glorious and awesome Name entrusted and gave - through Jewish women". The Holy One, Blessed be He, gave Jewish women the responsibility over these three foundations: over establishing an upright generation, over the kashrus of food and over the holiness of Shabbos. These three things are also an obligation for the man, of course, but the Holy One, Blessed be He, specifically designated and gave the woman the responsibility to ensure they are proper - "to keep them and to work them", to safeguard these things and perform them. These two expressions also allude to "do good" and "turn away from evil", as is known from the Torah's language regarding Adam HaRishon, that the Holy One, Blessed be He, placed him "l'avdah u'leshomrah" (to work it and to guard it); and here it is written in the reverse order, "l'shomrom u'le'ovdom" (to keep them and to work them).
The three things he mentions here are actually the three general mitzvos, about which it is written in the sefer Megaleh Amukos on the verse in Parshas Shlach, in the place where the Torah discusses the matter of separating challah. He speaks about these three mitzvos that are unique to Jewish women, and says that this is alluded to in the verse in Mishlei: "Grace is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears Hashem, she shall be praised".
He analyzes it precisely and asks: There is one word in the verse that is not understood - the word "hi" (she) seems superfluous. "Grace is deceitful, and beauty is vain, a woman who fears Hashem shall be praised" - what is the meaning of the word "hi"? And he explains by way of a hint, that the word "hi" refers to "ha-chein" (grace) at the beginning of the verse: Even though "grace is deceitful, and beauty is vain", a woman who fears Hashem who possesses "ha-chein" - she shall be praised.
And what is "ha-chein"? He says that it is an acronym for these three mitzvos: Hei - hadlakah, lighting the Shabbos candles; Ches - challah, which is the matter of kashrus; and Nun - niddah, which is taharas hamishpachah (family purity), the matter of establishing an upright generation. And he brings that in the sefer Hagahos Maimoniyos it is written, that those exact letters also form the word "Chanah": Chanah the prophetess was called by this name because she possessed perfection in these three mitzvos. And he also brings from Midrash Tanchuma, that a woman who fulfills these three things brings a tikun to the entire world.
There are three fundamental things that rectify the world. The Rebbe would mention this many times in connection with the day of the hilula of his mother, Rebbetzin Chanah - that "Chanah" is an acronym for the three mitzvos unique to Jewish women. This is also found in the ten mivtzoim of the Rebbe: there is the kashrus campaign, there is the holy Shabbos candles campaign, and there is the taharas hamishpachah campaign - the three mitzvos unique to Jewish women.
To conclude the teaching, he says: "The woman who fulfills her obligation and purpose in family life" - that woman who fulfills what is incumbent upon her "in family life, in the conduct of the home and in chinuch according to the Torah", meaning the three points we mentioned - "about her the verse says, 'The wisest of women builds her house'". Regarding the wise conduct of the Jewish woman, the verse says that she builds her house and establishes the correct foundations within the Jewish people.