The two hundred sixty-fifth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Thursday, 18 Menachem Av 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Eikev, Chamishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, on the 18th of the month, one recites two chapters — chapter 88 and chapter 89.
Tanya: On this day, we study the fifth letter in Iggeret HaKodesh. The daily portion begins on page 108 with the words "hacholem," and concludes on page 216 with the word "ba'asiyah."
The daily teaching is very brief — short in words, long in deeds — and it is a saying of the Mitteler Rebbe. Let us provide the background of where this saying appears and in what context. It appears in a letter written by the Rebbe Rayatz on 16 Tevet 5702, a very long letter written against the backdrop of a certain tension that existed between chassidim and misnagdim in a particular place. The Rebbe Rayatz says that every time a story like this, or one similar to it, occurs, he is reminded of a certain story, which he shares with the chassid.
He brings there a lengthy account of what took place on Shavuos at the Tzemach Tzedek in the year 5613. He related that famous chassidim came to Lubavitch at that time, specified the names of all the chassidim who arrived, and described the order of things at the Rebbe. We will not go into all the details now.
At the conclusion of the story: after the festival ended and Isru Chag of Shavuos arrived, the senior chassidim held a farbrengen among themselves in one of the houses. For the Tzemach Tzedek, when he had farbrenged with them on Shavuos, had spoken with them about a beis din that renders an erroneous ruling here in this world, and from that erroneous ruling not-good practical consequences result; and when that beis din comes up to the Heavenly Court, they are judged with severity for having erred, and especially if, as a result of their error, some not-good practical matter came about. This was the subject about which the Tzemach Tzedek spoke with them.
Therefore afterward, on Isru Chag, when the chassidim gathered among themselves, the famous chassid Reb Aizik of Homil began — for he had a very fine and clear manner of speech — and described the beis din of the misnagdim in Vilna, those who issued the cherem against the Alter Rebbe. They were brilliant men, and so forth, but he said: all these, whom he himself had known — now that they have arrived in the World of Truth and the truth has become known to them there, there is no doubt what disgrace and shame they have there in the World of Truth from recognizing the error that was in their hands when they issued all the excommunications against the Alter Rebbe. So spoke Reb Aizik of Homil.
In the midst of his speaking, they heard the chassid Reb Hillel Paritcher sitting off to the side and weeping very intensely. Reb Aizik heard that Reb Hillel was weeping with powerful sobs and stopped speaking, and all those assembled were greatly stunned by Reb Hillel's weeping, which was a great weeping. They waited to see what he was weeping about, and it took some time until he calmed down.
When he calmed down, he said the following: If in those generations — which he calls the earlier generations, in the generation of the Alter Rebbe — this beis din was a beis din of geonim and tzaddikim and so forth, then in this generation the genius and the righteousness have departed and diminished, and the sincerity has surely already departed. That is to say, those who continue in the error of the opposition in this generation, the third one, are not on as high a level as their predecessors, and therefore their crime and sin is far greater, and the shame and disgrace that will be theirs will be even more immense.
He concluded with the saying that appears here. He ended by saying that he himself heard it from the Mitteler Rebbe in the name of the Alter Rebbe. What did he hear? Let us read the daily teaching: "The Mitteler Rebbe said in the name of our Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe: Ahavat Yisrael must reach the point of the very expression of the soul." Ahavat Yisrael must take hold of a person and penetrate the heart of the one who loves with such powerful intensity, until "the expression of the soul" — literally, until he is squeezed out in his very soul; he must express his soul entirely upon this matter of Ahavat Yisrael.
When one reads the teaching on its own, without the background, there is here a powerful statement about ahavas Yisrael, a statement true and immense in its own right. But in relation to the background — what did Reb Hillel intend with his weeping, and what did he wish to say? One could argue in either direction.
a) He felt the immense pity for those misnagdim who still oppose and still fight; after all, there is a saying that ahavas Yisrael must extend to the very depths of the soul — where is their ahavas Yisrael, and how are they capable of fighting? b) On the other hand — we, the chassidim, how are we to relate to those misnagdim with ahavas Yisrael to the very depths of the soul, so that even upon such people there should be such pity? But this is what the Mitteler Rebbe said. Both directions caused him such tremendous emotional stirring, to the point of weeping from which he could not calm himself.