Room one hundred eighty-two in the hall of Hayom Yom.
Friday, 23 Iyar, 38 of the Omer, 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Bechukotai, Shishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, 23 of the month, we say from chapter 108 up to and including chapter 112.
Tanya, on this day we learn the second part of chapter 50 and conclude the chapter. The shiur begins from the word "Vehineh" on page 140, until the conclusion of the chapter with the words "chayei hachayim baruch hu".
The daily teaching is a short teaching taken from a letter that the Rebbe Rayatz wrote exactly ten years earlier. That is, we are here on the date of 23 Iyar 5703, and the Rebbe Rayatz wrote the letter on 23 Iyar 5693 - exactly ten years earlier. He wrote this to an avreich whom the Rebbe Rayatz had sent to be a mashpia in one of the yeshivos, and the letter strongly awakens him regarding how much he must invest in his personal avodah.
Evidently, as can be learned from the letter, that avreich wrote that he is not succeeding so much in having an effect on his surroundings, on the students. And the Rebbe Rayatz writes to him in the letter, that he had several worthy candidates for the position to which he sent him, but he chose him because he thought he would devote himself to the matter fully and organize his daily schedule as is fitting for a mashpia of chassidus - to set times for Torah for himself every day, and to daven a moderate, unhurried tefillah day by day, and especially on Shabbos. And this personal avodah is what grants success in everything.
Here the Rebbe Rayatz focuses primarily on the matter related to the avodah of tefillah. It is explained in chassidus that tefillah is compared to the spinal cord: just as the spinal cord in the human body holds all the limbs - and is not counted as one of them, but is the foundation, and if, Heaven forbid, the spinal cord is damaged, the entire system cannot survive - so too is tefillah. As is explained in chassidus, tefillah is not just the saying of the words of tefillah, but there is a concept called "avodas hatefillah": that a person contemplates during tefillah and understands the G-dly vitality that the tefillah is supposed to grant him for the course of the day. This is the foundation of everything, and when it is missing - the deficiency is felt in the entire system.
And the content of the teaching, let us read the text inside. He writes to him: "The beginning of a descent, Heaven forbid, is the lack of avodah in tefillah" - what is the first thing that causes a descent and spiritual deterioration? The lack of avodah in tefillah. When tefillah is not done with the required seriousness and the proper avodah of Hashem, automatically "everything becomes cold and dry"; his entire spiritual life becomes very dry, very cold, and very technical.
"Even the 'mitzvos anashim melumadah' become a burden" There is a situation where a person fulfills mitzvos without paying attention - mitzvos fulfilled without paying attention are called "mitzvos anashim melumadah" (doing mitzvos by rote): he fulfills the mitzvos because that is how he was taught and that is what he does, and his body automatically does what is required of it. But when a person is engaged in the avodah of tefillah, at the very least even the "mitzvos anashim melumadah" he does out of enjoyment in the matter; whereas when the avodah in tefillah is lacking, even the mitzvos that he does without much thought, as "mitzvos anashim melumadah", become hard and heavy for him to do.
"One rushes, one loses the taste in Torah, and the atmosphere becomes coarse, and it is understood that it is completely impossible to have an effect on another" One rushes in everything, there is no patience for a G-dly matter, and then one loses the delight that is supposed to be in the study of Torah and loses the required vitality; and then the entire atmosphere in which the person lives turns into coarse air, because he loses the spiritual vitality, and automatically he cannot have an effect on others, and in this is the response to that avreich who wrote that he could not have an effect on others, that the Rebbe Rayatz writes to him that he will not be able to have an effect if he himself is not alive and full of energy. This is the content of the teaching.