The ninety-ninth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Shabbos Parshas Shekalim, 29 Adar I, 5703.
This is the Shabbos before the month of Adar II. On it we begin the first of the four parshiyos - Parshas Shekalim. In the daily teaching there is, first of all, before the shiurim, a matter connected with the conduct of the day, and afterwards comes the saying.
In the first line there is a reference to the haftorah said on such a Shabbos. This Shabbos is 29 Adar, and the next day, Sunday, will be 30 Adar - so this day is erev Rosh Chodesh: 29 Adar is erev Rosh Chodesh Adar, and the following day will be Rosh Chodesh. As is known, on a Shabbos that is erev Rosh Chodesh there is a special haftorah relating to erev Rosh Chodesh. But on this Shabbos, which is Parshas Shekalim, we say the haftorah special to Parshas Shekalim. The question is whether there is nevertheless some reference to the fact that we are on erev Rosh Chodesh.
In the first line it says: what is the haftorah said on such a Shabbos? "Haftorah: Vayichros Yehoyada etc." - this is the beginning of the haftorah of Parshas Shekalim, which according to all customs, without differing customs, is read in its entirety. But here there is a novelty: "and we add the first and last verse of the haftorah of Machar Chodesh". Since it is erev Rosh Chodesh, we do not say the entire haftorah of erev Rosh Chodesh, but we make mention of it by adding its first and last verse.
Behind this simple and innocent instruction lie great depth and great length. Whoever wishes to grasp the entire elaboration and the considerations in both directions until the conclusion - there is a lengthy sicha of the Rebbe about this in Likkutei Sichos, volume 35, in the sicha on Chanukah.
Let us state the point in brief. In this matter there is a dispute between Rabbi Yosef Karo and the Rama. The basic dispute is what the law is regarding a Shabbos that is itself Rosh Chodesh, and the next day, Sunday, will also be Rosh Chodesh: on that Shabbos which is Rosh Chodesh we say the haftorah of Rosh Chodesh - do we mention in it, in addition to the haftorah of Rosh Chodesh, also the verses of erev Rosh Chodesh for the following day? On this they differ: Rabbi Yosef Karo rules that we do mention them, and the Rama says that we do not. And we follow in this the practice of Rabbi Yosef Karo, the Beis Yosef - meaning that on a Shabbos Rosh Chodesh which is also erev Rosh Chodesh we mention the verses of erev Rosh Chodesh in addition to the haftorah of the day.
The question is whether that same halachah applies also on other occasions before Rosh Chodesh - such as Shabbos Chanukah, which has a special haftorah, when it is erev Rosh Chodesh, or, as in our case, Parshas Shekalim, which has a special haftorah on erev Rosh Chodesh. There is a lengthy halachic discussion about this, whether our ruling regarding Rosh Chodesh and erev Rosh Chodesh applies similarly to these occasions, since there are differences between them. The Rebbe notes that there is a letter of the Rebbe Rayatz from the year 5691 in which he deliberates about this and the matter is left undecided. And ten years later, in 5701, when the Rebbe Rayatz was asked about it, he ruled that one must always mention the haftorah of the following day, even though until then he had been in doubt about it. And the custom here accords with this ruling - that even though we are now in Parshas Shekalim and say the haftorah of Shekalim, we nevertheless also mention erev Rosh Chodesh. And as said, whoever wishes to grasp the full elaboration should look at the source in Likkutei Sichos volume 35.
The next line: "We bless Rosh Chodesh Adar Sheini". This is a Shabbos Mevarchim, with the customs of Shabbos Mevarchim. Two things the Rebbe mentions on every Shabbos Mevarchim in Hayom Yom: "saying the entire Tehillim early in the morning", and in addition "a day of farbrengen" - that in accordance with the Rebbe's instruction a farbrengen should be held on Shabbos Mevarchim.
Shiurim: Chumash, sheveii with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, the 29th of the month, we say from chapter 140 through chapter 144 inclusive.
Tanya, on this day we begin chapter 33 from the beginning of the chapter, from the word "od", and the daily shiur concludes with the words "be'emunah zo".
After this comes the saying. Its source is a sicha of the Rebbe Rayatz from the year 5697, on the night of the seventh of Pesach. There it is related that one of those present at the farbrengen asked the Rebbe Rayatz what the reason is that chassidim, when they say "lchaim" to one another, respond "lchaim ulivrachah", whereas in the world at large - not in Chabad - the practice is that when one says to his fellow "lchaim", they respond "lchaim tovim ulesholom". And so he asked: what is the reason for the difference? Why do they respond "lchaim tovim ulesholom", while among us we respond "lchaim ulivrachah"?
The Rebbe Rayatz replies: "In saying "lchaim" there are two versions. a) "lchaim tovim ulesholom"" - the version accepted in most places. "And the reason for the blessing", what its content is, and why we say "lchaim tovim ulesholom" when a person says "lchaim" over wine? The Rebbe Rayatz explains: because the drinking of wine mentioned for the first time in the Torah had not-good results" - and that is with Noach, where it is written ""Vayachel Noach etc.", and Rashi explains that "vayachel" is also from the expression of chullin, that Noach made himself chullin and drank wine, and there were not-good results from this. And furthermore, that "the Tree of Knowledge was a grapevine".
It is interesting that in the Gemara in tractate Berachos both reasons, these two points, are brought together: there the Gemara says that Rabbi Meir holds that the tree from which Adam HaRishon ate was a grapevine, and says that "there is nothing that brings wailing upon a person except wine", and brings the verse said regarding Noach, "and he drank of the wine and became drunk". But here the Rebbe Rayatz divides this into two different sources. Moreover, in the sicha itself in the source it is written that the man who asked "why do we say lchaim tovim ulesholom?", and the Rebbe Rayatz had only begun to say that the first time it was not for the good - the questioner asked: "Do you mean by Noach? Is that the first time in the Torah?", and the Rebbe Rayatz answered him: "According to nigleh yes, that is the first time; but according to nistar" - the Midrash, which is more hidden - says that the matter began even earlier, with Adam HaRishon, that "Chavah ate from a cluster of grapes", and that was the Tree of Knowledge. Here he mentions both of them, but it is not spelled out here that he divided between them as "according to nigleh" and "according to nistar".
In any case, since the Torah relates about wine as something that brought not-good results, "therefore we bless that this wine should be for good life". And therefore, when a person says "lchaim", we answer him "that it should be lchaim tovim ulesholom" - not like the wine in the Torah, which had not-good results. This is the explanation of the custom practiced in the world at large.
And from here to the question of why among us we say "lchaim ulivrachah". "b) The Rav HaMaggid of Mezritch would answer "lchaim ulivrachah"". The Maggid, disciple of the Baal Shem Tov, was unique in that with him the response "lchaim ulivrachah" was heard for the first time. And what is the reason? In the source the Rebbe Rayatz says immediately: "the reason they did not know and they do not know even now" - they did not know then the reason why he said "lchaim ulivrachah", and even now it is not known.
But he relates a story: so the Maggid conducted himself, and so did his disciple, the Alter Rebbe. "Once at a farbrengen at which the Alter Rebbe was present", and someone said "lchaim", "the Alter Rebbe answered: lchaim ulivrachah" - like his teacher the Maggid. He did not explain the reason, since, as said, "the reason is not known". Rather what? "After the farbrengen the chassidim discussed the reason for this wording"; the chassidim began to examine among themselves why the Alter Rebbe said "lchaim ulivrachah", "which they had heard then for the first time" - until then they had always known the expression "lchaim tovim ulesholom".
"One of the chassidim said" on his own, on his own initiative, the reasoning that burst forth within him: "that since when wine enters, a secret goes out". For when a person drinks wine, the Gemara says "when wine enters, a secret goes out" - "yayin" and "sod" have the same gematria, seventy. Just as the wine was like a secret hidden in the grapes and it comes out - meaning that the secret came out of the grape - so too the wine acts upon the person who drinks it, that his inner self comes out. "And in avodah", in the service of Hashem, what is "a secret goes out" - which secret comes out? "It is the revelation of the middos": a person's middos are revealed, sometimes great love, and sometimes also the opposite.
And therefore, says the chassid, since the middos are revealed - and they can be revealed in a good way, but can also be revealed, G-d forbid, in a negative way - "therefore a blessing is needed": that the middos revealed as a result of drinking the wine should be in the proper direction. And how is it expressed that the middos were revealed in the proper way? "And the wording is lchaim ulivrachah". And he makes a fine point in the word "ulivrachah": "the letters of "livar kah"" are like two words - "lev rakah", that the heart which is revealed in saying "lchaim" should be a "soft heart", that the middos should be refined, good and soft. So said that chassid on his own, out of his feeling.
"The Tzemach Tzedek said about this" and the Rebbe Rayatz relates there that the Tzemach Tzedek responded to this. The Tzemach Tzedek was not present at that time, but when they told him what the chassid had said - and the first sentence of the Tzemach Tzedek does not appear here in the saying in Hayom Yom, but in the source it does appear - the Tzemach Tzedek said: "Ah!" [a pleasant and good remark], and concluded, saying: "This can be said by a chassid who has davened and engaged in the service of Hashem for thirty years", from him such a feeling and such a remark can emerge. That is, even though this is not necessarily the reason the Maggid said so - since, in the words of the Rebbe Rayatz, the Maggid's reason is not known - this is a chassid's feeling, and so he felt; and this feeling the Tzemach Tzedek praised greatly, being a feeling that comes from the heart of a chassid who labored in deep avodah.
The Rebbe would always say "lchaim ulivrachah". Once the Rebbe expressed himself and said in the wording customary among the Jewish people, "lchaim tovim ulesholom", or higher than that, "lchaim ulivrachah" - that is, he mentioned both of them and placed the one above the other.