Room number two hundred eighty-two in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Sunday, 5 Elul 5703.
Lessons: Chumash, Teitzei, first parsha with the commentary of Rashi.
Tehillim, on the 5th of the month, from chapter 29 through chapter 34; and according to the three chapters a day — on the 5th of the month one recites chapters 13, 14, and 15.
Tanya: On this day one begins Epistle 12 of Iggeret HaKodesh, from its start with the word "vehaya," and the portion concludes on page 117 with the words "midot levadan."
The daily teaching is a daily practice one ought to follow. Let us preface by noting that there are different opinions as to the time at which one should recite the blessing over the tallit gadol. On what do these opinions depend? On the differing approaches in halachah: at which stage is the mitzvah of the tallit gadol fulfilled — is the mitzvah fulfilled at the moment of wrapping oneself, or does it perhaps take effect only after the wrapping. This matter is discussed in a sugya in tractate Menachot, and there are words of Tosafot there, and from the various ways of understanding these words the two approaches emerged.
One must know that there is a general rule that a blessing must always be recited before the fulfillment of a mitzvah, and as close to it as possible. As a result, various approaches arose regarding when exactly one should recite the blessing. And when one examines the words of the Alter Rebbe, one sees a difference between what he wrote in the Shulchan Aruch and what he wrote afterward in the Piskei HaSiddur: in the Shulchan Aruch the Alter Rebbe wrote that the blessing should be recited when one begins the wrapping, before one completes it; whereas in the Piskei HaSiddur he ruled that the blessing should be recited before one begins the wrapping.
Our custom mentioned here, as the Rebbe heard from the Rebbe Rayatz and included in the daily teaching, is a kind of compromise between what the Alter Rebbe wrote in the Shulchan Aruch and what he ruled in the Siddur. That is, as we will see shortly, one begins the blessing before beginning to wrap oneself — as he wrote in the Siddur — but recites it slowly and continues it until close to the completion of the wrapping — as he wrote in the Shulchan Aruch — and in this way one fulfills all the opinions.
Let us examine the wording within: "Our custom regarding the donning of the tallis gadol". What is the custom? "One places the tallis gadol folded upon the left shoulder," for before reciting the blessing one must ensure that all the tzitzis are complete and that no thread is missing, so that the blessing be recited properly. Therefore one first places the tallis, folded, upon the shoulder, "and inspects the tzitzis" — checking all the threads, that there are indeed thirty-two threads, and arranging the knots so that everything be as it should.
"During the inspection one recites Barchi Nafshi etc." — while inspecting the fringes and their completeness, one recites the verses of "Barchi Nafshi." After finishing the inspection and knowing that the tallis is intact, "afterward one takes the tallis from the shoulder and unfolds it" — one lowers it from the shoulder and opens it with both hands in an outspread manner — "one kisses the edge of the tallis, then brings it from in front of the face around to the back": after having unfolded it, it is before his eyes, and he kisses its upper edge, and then brings it from in front of his face around to the back, toward the rear, and he still does not yet wrap himself in it.
Before one begins to wrap oneself, "and one begins the blessing 'lehitatef betzitzit'," reciting the blessing slowly while performing the act of wrapping. When does one conclude the blessing? "The conclusion of the blessing coincides with the wrapping of the right corner around the neck toward the back on the left side." One should take care that when wrapping oneself, two corners remain on the right side and two corners on the left side.
The Rebbe notes "see She'eris Yehudah" — a work authored by the brother of the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Yehudah Leib, who served as the rav of the city of Yanovitch, in the section "Orach Chaim, siman 1," where he discusses the topic. He likewise refers to "Divrei Nechemyah" — a work written by Rabbi Nechemyah of Dubrovna, one of the chassidic disciples of the Alter Rebbe (whose father was already a chassid of the Alter Rebbe, and who himself merited, in his second marriage, to wed one of the Alter Rebbe's granddaughters), in the section "Orach Chaim, siman 9." There they discuss this matter; but here we have before us the summary and the brief conclusion of how one is to conduct oneself in practice.
An interesting point to conclude. It was stated here that first one places the tallit gadol folded on the shoulder and checks the tzitzit. In connection with this stage, the Rebbe Rayatz brings an interesting story in "Likkutei Dibburim." Once his father, the Rebbe Rashab, sent the Rebbe Rayatz to carry out a very complex mission on behalf of the Jewish people; and so that no one would know at all about the purpose of his journey, he traveled there together with the Rebbetzin, so that it would appear as though they had gone on vacation, while he sought to accomplish a task. He returned without having succeeded, and when he came back he found his father standing with the tallit on his shoulder in the midst of checking the tzitzit, and he said to him: "The mission did not succeed."
The Rebbe Rashab told him, while the tallis was still upon him: "Let me tell you a story." The Alter Rebbe once sent his son, the Mitteler Rebbe, to carry out a certain mission, and he did not succeed. When he returned to his father and said to the Alter Rebbe, "I did not succeed," it happened to be precisely at the moment when the Alter Rebbe was standing with the tallis on his shoulder in the midst of checking the tzitzis, and the Alter Rebbe said to him: "Know that the tallis has power — as it is written in Chassidus, it has the power of makif, a supernal power, and the power to blind the eyes of the chitzonim and to nullify the forces of the kelipah." And in this way he gave him renewed strength.
The Mitteler Rebbe took hold of the tzitzis threads of his father, the Alter Rebbe, kissed them, and immediately set out on his way to carry out the mission — and he succeeded with a wondrous, G-dly success. When the Rebbe Rashab heard of this, he immediately did the same: he took hold of his father's tzitzis threads, kissed them, and went back to the task — and succeeded in it in a most wondrous manner.