The seventy-eighth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Shabbos, 8 Adar I, 5703.
Lessons: Chumash, parshas Terumah, Shevi'i with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, 8th of the month, from chapter 44 through chapter 48 inclusive.
Tanya, today we begin chapter 28, from the first word "Va'afilu", until the passage ending with the words "mamash imo".
The daily saying brings a story and a very interesting and important teaching of the Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe chose a melamed - the one called "the melamed of Liozna" - to learn with his son, as we will see in detail in the saying itself. And when the Alter Rebbe chose this melamed, this is how he described things, and he brings many proofs that this is something received from Rebbe to Rebbe, exactly how the order of events went.
The Alter Rebbe spoke with the melamed about his great responsibility as a melamed, that he gives the spiritual nourishment to the child's soul, tells him stories of Torah with holiness and with G-dly vitality, and implants in the child's heart love of Hashem and fear of Hashem; and he simply guided him how to do this.
Let us look at the beginning of the saying. The source is in Yiddish, and in translation: "Rabbeinu haZaken summoned a young man, one of the Maggid's disciples, and said to him - in a melody, as was his way", for as is known he would say many things with a particular melody. And this is what he said to him:
The Alter Rebbe said: "I am commanded with 'v'limadtem osam es b'neichem', you are commanded to feed and support your household; let us make an exchange: I will give you all your needs so that you will be able to fulfill the mitzvah incumbent upon you, and you will learn with my son".
Who was the son? The Alter Rebbe had several sons, and therefore he specifies: "This was the Mitteler Rebbe".
The continuation of the story, which does not appear here: the melamed was sharp, and he said to the Alter Rebbe: "The part that you want to give in this deal - the money with which I will be able to feed my household - you know exactly what you have to give, and there is not much to know about it; but the part that you want from me, that I should teach your son, I do not know how one does that. I need to receive guidance in how one fulfills 'v'shinantam l'vanecha'".
To this the Alter Rebbe answers him and guides him in what he must do. And as is explained also in the letters of the Rebbe Rayatz, he emphasized to him that in learning it is important not only to learn the content of the stories, but that when one learns with a child one must also teach him the holiness of the letters, the letters of Torah. There is the vowelization, which is a matter in its own right, and there are the letters - to teach him not only how one pronounces the letter, but that he should also see its outer, technical form, how the letter is written; for in the very form of the letter too there is meaning and a great message, and this relationship to the letters gives a sense of holiness and loftiness to a holy thing.
And then the saying says: "and he explained to him the order of study" - the Alter Rebbe explained before him the order of study in answer to the melamed's question.
What was the melamed's name? We do not know; but it is known that the great-grandson of that melamed was called R' Berel ben Pesach, and he was the melamed of the Rebbe Rayatz. That is, the melamed of the Rebbe Rayatz was the great-grandson of the melamed who taught the Mitteler Rebbe.
And this is how he presented to him the order of study. He said to him: "First one learns the letters of the alef beis" - the first thing one learns with a child is the letters, alef-beis. The holiness of the letters is a holiness in its own right, even before any content that the letters express; the letters themselves must be related to with great holiness.
And then he relates to the first letter: "What is an alef?". Once the Rebbe told this with the melody, the way the Alter Rebbe said it. And how does one describe an alef? "A dot above and a dot below and a line in the middle - that is an 'alef'". A "pintele" is a focused dot: a dot above, a dot below, and a line in the middle - that is the outer, technical form of the letter alef.
And what is the content of the dot above, the dot below, and the line? "A Jewish child must know that the alef of Torah", with what does one begin and what is the first thing: "is the yud above", and the intent is of course to the Holy One blessed be He, who is above the understanding and grasp of the created being and is expressed in a dot. And as is explained also in Tanya (in chapters 18-19), that G-dliness is expressed in the sefirah of chochmah, which is hinted at in the letter yud, the first letter of Hashem's name; the yud is the dot that expresses the G-dly abstraction. That is the dot above.
"The yud below" - this is the hint to a Jew, which in Yiddish is "Yid", a word that sounds similar to "yud". There is the yud, the dot above - the Holy One blessed be He; and there is the yud below - the Jew. And how can the Jew connect to the yud above, to receive the abstract G-dly Ein Sof into his vessels, as the Rebbe explained in one of the sichos? "and the line of emunah that unites them" - there is a line of faith that unites and connects the upper dot with the lower dot. This is what the Alter Rebbe told him, and this is what must be instilled in a child at the beginning of his learning. This is one version: according to it the upper yud is the Holy One blessed be He, and the lower yud is the soul of the Jew.
"Another version" - and according to the second version the upper yud and the lower yud receive a slightly different meaning. "The 'yud' above is the neshamah" - according to the second version, both yuds, both the upper and the lower, are the Jew; only that within the Jew himself there are two parts: the yud above is the neshamah, and "a Jew below is the body" - the Jew below, not as an abstract soul, but as his soul is clothed in a body.
And what connects the neshamah with the body as it is here below? "and the line of yiras Shamayim is in the middle" - in the middle there is a line of fear of Heaven, which connects the neshamah to the body and reveals the truth of the soul within the Jew as he lives in this world. When there is fear of Heaven, a person lives as a Jew, according to Hashem's will - and that is the connection between the neshamah and the body. These are the two versions in which the Alter Rebbe explained how one begins the education of a pure Jewish child.