"Room" 460 in the hall of Hayom Yom.
Thursday, 1 Iyar, second day of Rosh Chodesh, 16th of the Omer, 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Kedoshim, Chamishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim: 1st of the month, reciting the first chapters, from Chapter 1 to Chapter 9 inclusive.
Tanya, Chapter 44. The daily shiur begins on page 126 with the words "Vehineh be'", and ends on page 64 with the words "ahavat olam".
The passage before us appears in a farbrengen led by the Rebbe Rayatz on the holiday of Shavuot 5702. In the sichah there, he describes a specific occasion when the farbrengen mentioned in the teaching took place. He explains the background: in the years 5651-5653, there was a custom in Lubavitch that after Pesach they would go out for recuperation; and how was this "going out" expressed? They would go out to the house's balcony to breathe the fresh air and sit there - this was the recuperation.
He recounts that at one of the farbrengens, where the Rebbe Rashab and other chassidim sat, the Rebbe Rayatz was also present, who was then a boy of about eleven or twelve. He had a melamed, whose name was Rabbi Nissan the melamed, and he was present there with other chassidim. Rabbi Nissan the melamed related in the name of his father-in-law, Rabbi Pesach the melamed, that he heard from his father, Rabbi Avraham the melamed, who was one of the chassidim of Admur Hazaken. Thus, it was passed from person to person - Rabbi Nissan from his father-in-law, from his father.
And what did he describe? This is the teaching studied today. And thus it is said: "On a certain occasion, at a farbrengen during the days of Sefirah in the years 5651-5653, they told my father" - the Rebbe Rayatz says that they spoke before his father, the Rebbe Rashab. This was at a farbrengen during the days of Sefirat HaOmer, after Pesach, in one of the years 5651-5653, when they would go out for a break on the balcony.
And what was said there, in the name of Rabbi Avraham? "The chassidim of Admur Hazaken were always counting". And he explained the meaning of the fact that they were always counting - that they valued every moment and counted it, just as a child counts the candies he has; they counted every moment.
And the Rebbe Rayatz describes: "The teaching found great favor in my father's eyes" - that the chassidim of Admur Hazaken were always counting. "And he said" - and then the Rebbe Rashab responded to what he had heard: "This is the essence of 'avodah'; the hours must be counted, and then the days are also counted". That is, if the hours are counted, then automatically the days are also counted; for every hour has meaning, and therefore every day, which is a collection of several hours, also has its meaning.
"When a day passes, one must know what was accomplished and what remains to be accomplished in the future" - once the day passes, a person must know what he accomplished today, and what he must accomplish tomorrow. Since the days and hours are counted, every day has meaning, and the person knows what he has done and toward what he is heading. "In general, one must strive that tomorrow be much "more beautiful" than today".
[By the way, the teaching appears here on 1 Iyar, and the tomorrow of 1 Iyar is 2 Iyar - for in Sefirat HaOmer, the counting of 2 Iyar is "Tiferet shebeTiferet", the most beautiful of the beautiful. He says that one must see to it that tomorrow will be more beautiful than today, and this is the tomorrow - Tiferet shebeTiferet].
The Rebbe Rayatz told this teaching in 5702, about something that occurred fifty years earlier, in 5651-5652. And thirty years later, on the holiday of Shavuot 5732, the Rebbe repeated this teaching, and said "And it came to pass in the thirtieth year," and repeated the entire story again.
The Rebbe added an emphasis on the matter: when a person counts something, it has meaning - it is a sign that the thing is important to him. And the Rebbe said that when one counts time, it is much more meaningful than counting money or counting objects. When a person counts objects or money - things that he has - he counts because there is an accounting involved: to know how much there is, if something is missing, and what can be added. But when a person counts time - he cannot change the time; time does not depend on him, it is impossible to add to it or subtract from it. And when he counts time, it shows even more that he values it and that the matter is important to him - not because of an accounting of "how much there is," but because the matter is precious and important to him.
The Rebbe further emphasized that there is meaning in counting: as I count today, so will tomorrow look, and so will the coming period look. And he brought an example from Sefirat HaOmer - that if a person misses counting one day, he can no longer count with a blessing in the subsequent days, since he has lost the sequence. In counting, a person's conduct and the value he places on time affect the entirety of his remaining time.
A person who wants to reach a meaningful state in life in his old age cannot say, "When I reach my old age and retirement, then I will start paying attention to what is happening with me"; if he did not value his time in his youth, nothing will accumulate to give meaning to his days in his old age. Because if one wants there to be meaning to time later on, the counting is relevant from this very moment, and this is how the entire continuation of time is built. This is a point the Rebbe spoke about in 5732.
Let us conclude with an interesting point. Sefirat HaOmer already began in Nissan, and the Rebbe chose to include this teaching about the preciousness of counting specifically on 1 Iyar, even though we have been in Sefirat HaOmer since Pesach. It is known from the sichos that although we count Sefirat HaOmer in Nissan and Sivan, the primary month whose essence is Sefirat HaOmer is specifically Iyar; for in Nissan we do not count the entire month but only from Pesach, and in Sivan it is also only until the holiday of Shavuot. The only month in which all its days, throughout the entire month, contain the mitzvah of Sefirat HaOmer, is Iyar.
Therefore, immediately upon entering the month of Iyar, on its 1st day - the month whose theme is counting - comes this teaching, showing how significant and important counting is, and how it is, in the words of the Rebbe Rashab, the entire essence of avodah.