The two hundred and sixtieth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Shabbos, 13 Menachem Av 5703.
First, the Rebbe brings a practice that already appeared in "Hayom Yom" earlier — in Parshas Yisro and on the festival of Shavuos — and here it appears for the third time: whenever the Ten Commandments are read in the Torah, whether in the weekly parsha or because of the festival (on Shavuos), "during the reading of the Ten Commandments," when the chazzan in the synagogue reads them, "one stands facing the Sefer Torah."
Chumash lessons: Va'etchanan, seventh reading, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, on the 13th of the month, one recites from Psalm 69 through and including Psalm 71.
Tanya: On this day one begins the fourth letter in the section "Iggeret HaKodesh." Letter 4 opens with the words "Ein Yisrael nigalin ela bitzedakah" ("Israel will be redeemed only through tzedakah"), and the portion concludes on page 106 with the word "bitzedakah."
The Rebbe summarized today's teaching from a letter written by the Rebbe Rayatz on 7 Elul 5693. The source is a very long letter, from which the Rebbe distills a single point. Before we read the saying, let us recall a mishnah in Pirkei Avot, which is also mentioned later in the teaching; the saying deals with that same idea, and we will see what within it is based on the mishnah.
In Pirkei Avot, at the end of mishnah 9 in the sixth chapter, it is stated regarding the verse in Mishlei: "When you walk, it shall guide you; when you lie down, it shall watch over you; and when you awake, it shall converse with you." The mishnah says that the verse alludes to three times at which the Torah protects a person: "When you walk, it shall guide you" — in this world; "when you lie down, it shall watch over you" — in the grave, after a person's passing; "and when you awake, it shall converse with you" — in the World to Come. That is, the mishnah speaks of these three times — life in the world, after passing, and the World to Come — in all of which the Torah protects a person.
The teaching deals with this, but it broadens and adds an additional time. The Rebbe speaks about the same points found in Pirkei Avot, except that he bases it on a different verse — a verse from the weekly parashah, Va'etchanan, recited in Kriat Shema: "And you shall speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk on the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up." From this it appears that in this saying the Rebbe brings not three times as in the Mishnah — this world, "the grave," and the World to Come — but rather four times.
Let us examine the wording of the teaching: "You shall speak of them when you sit... and our Sages said: Scripture is speaking of words of Torah." Once we know from the heading that "you shall speak of them" refers to the Torah, we can look at the details: "when you sit in your house, when you walk on the way, when you lie down, and when you rise." These are four stages in which the Torah is connected to a person. "Indeed, within the engagement in Torah itself" — if we are speaking of "you shall speak of them," whose subject is engagement in Torah, then within the engagement in Torah itself, "indeed, within the engagement in Torah itself there are several distinctions of levels" — several stages and several degrees in which the Torah exists, protects and assists a person, and which he chiefly also studies.
"And here he explains all the levels". The first level — "when you sit in your home". What stage is this? "It is the state of the soul above, in the treasury of souls, before its descent below, where it is engaged in Torah". "When you sit in your home" is the stage of the soul before it descended below, before it was chosen; at first the soul passes through the order of hishtalshelus, through the worlds, from level to level and from world to world, until it comes down below to this world.
With its descent into the world, the "journey" already begins, yet it is not yet complete — the soul must clothe itself in a physical body. "'When you walk on the way' — this refers to the time when the soul descends from world to world and from level to level, until it comes down below to the lower world to clothe itself in a physical body and begins to walk on the way of this world until the days of old age and hoary years." Except that here it is not a journey from level to level in the upper worlds, but rather "on the way of this world, until the days of old age and hoary years." Throughout all the days of a person's life he goes and goes, and in all this journeying, in "and you shall speak of them," there is the matter of Torah study. This is the second stage.
What is the third stage? "Ad beshochbecha" (until you lie down). What is "beshochbecha"? "When the days of his passing arrive" — when the time comes for a person to depart from the world, which the Mishnah calls "in the grave." The Mishnah refers to the verse in Mishlei, and here the Rebbe brings the verse from "Shema Yisrael" in which that same word, "beshochbecha," appears. "And even then" — even after a person has already departed from the world and is in the grave — "behold, the Torah watches over him, as explained in the sixth chapter of Avot." Here the Rebbe directs us to that Mishnah in the sixth chapter of Pirkei Avot, which speaks of this stage of "in the grave."
Until one reaches the fourth stage — "up to "uvekumecha," as stated, "vehekitzosa etc."". What is "uvekumecha"? This, as mentioned, is what is called in Pirkei Avos with different words: "uvehekitzosa hi tesichecha — this refers to the World to Come." This is the fourth stage, alluded to in the word "uvekumecha".
It is interesting to add that in one of the sichos in which the Rebbe spoke about this teaching over the years, the Rebbe explained the second stage — when the soul is in the world — which is called "belechtecha vaderech" (when you go on the way). Here we emphasized the "vaderech," that all of life is a long journey, but we did not address the word "belechtecha." In the sicha the Rebbe said that "belechtecha" is alluded to by the well-known fact that the soul has an advantage in that it becomes a "mehalech" (one who moves forward): in Chassidus it is explained many times that in contrast to the angels, who are called "omdim" (stationary), the souls are called "mehalchim" (those who advance). And when does the soul receive this advantage of being a "mehalech"? On the way — that very journey which encompasses all of life in this world, in which one fulfills Torah and mitzvos; this is "belechtecha," through which the soul attains the advantage of being a "mehalech."
Another interesting point: in marking the end of the time frame of "uvlechtecha vaderech" (and when you walk on the way), the Rebbe mentioned "until the days of old age and hoary years [ziknah v'seivah]." At first glance this requires examination: it is well known that the Mishnah at the end of the fifth chapter of Pirkei Avot speaks about the years of a person's life, stating "at sixty for old age [ziknah], at seventy for hoary age [seivah]." According to this, if "ziknah" and "seivah" are markers of age — sixty or seventy — then when one says "until seivah," meaning until seventy, this already includes ziknah as well, and it would have sufficed to write only the later one, which already encompasses the earlier. Why, then, does the Rebbe specify in the saying both "ziknah" and "seivah"? Seemingly the word "ziknah" is superfluous.
The Rebbe, in fact, posed this question regarding a different Mishnah in Pirkei Avos: in chapter 6, Mishnah 8, Rabbi Shimon ben Yehudah says, "Beauty, strength, wealth, honor, wisdom, old age [zikna], and hoary age [seiva] . . are becoming to the righteous and becoming to the world." There, too, he mentions "zikna" and "seiva," and the same question arises: if zikna and seiva refer to age, it would have sufficed to mention "seiva," so why must "zikna" also be mentioned?
The explanation is that "old age" and "hoary age" are not merely a matter of years, but also a state of the soul and a level within the soul: "elder" (zaken), in the language of Chazal, means "one who has acquired wisdom" ("zeh shekanah chochmah"); and "hoary age" (seivah) refers to a person who possesses settled-mindedness (hityashvut hada'at). These are two distinct states — it is possible for a person to have "old age" without "hoary age," and possible for another to have "hoary age" without "old age," not in terms of years but in terms of state. Therefore, since "old age" and "hoary age" can also denote two states in the soul, it is fitting to mention "until the days of old age and hoary age" — that the person merits both this and that; it is not always a matter of years, but also a matter of state.