The two hundred and fifty-seventh "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Wednesday, 10 Menachem Av, 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Va'etchanan, Revi'i, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim: for the tenth of the month, from chapter 55 through chapter 59 inclusive.
Tanya: on this day one studies the entire second letter in the section Iggeret HaKodesh of the Tanya. Letter 2 begins with the word "Katonti" and continues until the conclusion of the letter, with the words "hapanim etc."
The daily teaching is an excerpt from a farbrengen of the Rebbe Rayatz on 20 Kislev 5693, in which the Rebbe Rayatz relates certain points concerning this Igeret Hakodesh — "Katonti" — which is recited in the daily study portion. This is a famous letter that the Alter Rebbe wrote to the chassidim after he returned from Petersburg, from his imprisonment. The content of the letter is that one must recognize the great kindness that the Holy One, blessed be He, performed in the very imprisonment itself, and how this kindness ought to effect in its recipient a sense of bittul.
The letter concludes with an awesome warning not to be of "haughty heart" toward the opponents who caused the imprisonment, but rather, on the contrary — to be of humbled spirit before them, for "a soft answer turns away wrath." And he brings the verse, "and a broken spirit etc." [the conclusion of the verse in Mishlei: "and a broken spirit dries up the bones"], whose intent is: if you remain silent and do not respond, the dispute and quarrel will subside. This is the content.
With these words — "and a broken spirit etc." — the original letter came to a close. And here, in the citation, we see what actually occurred: that the Alter Rebbe continued the letter with another nine words, writing: "and as water reflects face to face etc., and perhaps G-d will place in their brothers' hearts as water reflects face etc." This is the conclusion of the letter, and we shall see what the point of the conclusion is and what brought about this matter.
Let us read the wording of the teaching: "From the stories of my grandfather, my master and teacher" [my lord, my grandfather, my teacher and rebbe] — the reference is to Rebbe the Maharash, grandfather of the Rebbe Rayatz. And he brings two matters in connection with this letter. The first matter: "Originally the Iggeret HaKodesh 'Katonti' concluded with 'and a downcast spirit etc.,' and after our great Rebbe [the Alter Rebbe] said three times — in Liozna — the maamar 'Kamayim HaPanim etc.'". After he said three times the maamar on the verse "As water reflects the face to the face," he emphasized in that very maamar that the interpretation is "according to Rashi's explanation and not according to its Targum".
What does Rashi say on the verse, and what does the Targum say? According to the Targum, the verse "As in water face answers to face, so the heart of man to man" is a description of a situation: just as water and a face are not alike — for water has no defined form, and the shapes reflected in it are always changing, whereas the face is a fixed form — so too the heart of man to man: the hearts of people differ from one another, this one feels this way and that one feels that way. This is how the Targum explains the verse.
Rashi explains the verse differently: what is it that King Solomon came to teach — how can one influence another person? According to Rashi, "as water reflects face to face" — just as water is affected by the face you show it, the image being reflected in accordance with what you present, so too "does the heart of one man to another" — the heart of the other person toward you changes according to the face you show him; if you show him a smiling, pleasant face, he too will change and relate to you accordingly. On this point the Alter Rebbe placed emphasis — to explain the verse in the manner of Rashi and not in the manner of the Targum.
After he said this maamar three times, he "added the words" — he added in the letter "Katonti" another nine words: "and all this — the face, etc." And what did he accomplish by this? "With this he implanted in the chassidim good midos." Without this addition, the letter would only have stated "do not answer them, be of a lowly spirit, in humility, keep silent" — nothing positive in particular would have been demanded of them in order to change the attitude of the opponents, but merely to remain silent and be quiet.
But when the Alter Rebbe added these nine words, he implanted good character traits within the chassidim: that when you see someone who is against you, not only should you not respond to him, but on the contrary — you should relate to him with affection and love, and thereby transform him. These are the good midos that the Alter Rebbe implanted in the chassidim. This is the first teaching that the Rebbe Maharash said in connection with the letter "Katonti."
The second teaching: at the conclusion of the letter, shortly before its end, the Alter Rebbe asks of the chassidim "to humble their spirit and heart before every person." Yet between the words "to humble their spirit and heart" and "before every person," he inserted three additional words: "in the manner of the truth of Yaakov" (bemidat emet leYaakov). Seemingly, even without these three words the sentence could be read continuously — "to humble their spirit and heart before every person"; so why did he insert that the humbling of the spirit should be "in the manner of the truth of Yaakov"? That is, that you humble your spirit before another, but in truth — not merely superficially, from the lips outward, but rather that you feel within your innermost self such lowliness.
The Rebbe Maharash said: "Had the Rebbe omitted the three words 'in the attribute of truth to Yaakov' — in the Igeret HaKodesh 'Katonti' — he would have had another fifty thousand chassidim; the Rebbe demands the attribute of truth" — that is to say, had his demand been merely to humble their spirit and heart even if only outwardly, and he had not required that this be done with an inner and genuine attribute of truth — had he not set such high demands upon the chassidim that they be truthful and inward, he could have added another fifty thousand chassidim who would go and act according to his words — but not in an inward manner, rather superficially, from the lips outward.
The Alter Rebbe forwent the quantity of chassidim he could have influenced, because he demanded that the matter be "in the measure of truth." He forwent the quantity, on account of his desire that whoever came to be his chassid and to fulfill his words — should do so in an inner and truthful manner.