Room one hundred and thirty-eight in the hall of Hayom Yom.
Wednesday, 9 Nissan 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Metzora, Revii, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, 9th of the month, from chapter 49 to chapter 54 inclusive.
Tanya, on this day we conclude chapter 40. The shiur begins on page 110 with the words "Vehinei avdei", and ends at the conclusion of the chapter with the word "berachot".
The daily teaching comes from a short letter written by the Rebbe Rayatz on 12 Sivan 5699. He wrote it to a certain woman who was worried about her parnasah and material affairs, and he strongly encourages her that there is no need to be worried about gashmius and parnasah, but rather to invest all her focus into yiras shamayim and to speak pleasantly with the members of her household. He specifies there: with the daughters and daughters-in-law, with the sons and sons-in-law, in order to properly keep the path of Hashem, to observe taharas hamishpachah and to properly raise Jewish grandchildren. This is the content of the letter.
Within the letter appears the daily saying, originally in Yiddish, whose point is that the true wealth of a Jew is not in his physical property, but rather the true property of a Jew is children who follow the path of Torah and mitzvos. And this is the wording: "Jewish wealth is not in houses and money". [In the original letter it does not say "hayzer un gelt" (houses and money), but rather "moyern un kapital", which means buildings and capital].
"The eternal Jewish wealth is" - what is the eternal wealth of the Jewish people? - "that we are Jews who observe Torah and mitzvos, and we bring into the world children and descendants who observe Torah and mitzvos". That is, first that we ourselves are Jews who keep the path of Torah and mitzvos, and we bring into the world children and grandchildren who also observe Torah and mitzvos. This is the true Jewish wealth. We see here encouragement to bring more children and grandchildren into the world, and of course to preserve their spiritual path.
It is interesting what a chossid named R. Mordechai Lieberman related, having heard it from Rabbi Chaim Gutnick, the Rabbi from Australia, who was once at a yechidus with the Rebbe and asked the Rebbe why he encourages the matter of increasing the birthrate with such great strength, in a style the likes of which had not been heard from our Rabbeim and Nesiim before him. The Rebbe took a small piece of paper out of his desk drawer, and wrote a number on it - six million - that we must replenish for the Jewish people the many millions who perished, Rachmana litzlan.
The connection of the teaching to this date - seemingly there is a connection to the parashah of the week. We are in Parshas Metzora on Wednesday, which discusses houses and the plague of houses, and when there is a plague in the houses they pull out the stones and extract the money in the walls. Regarding this comes the content of the teaching and says: neither the houses nor the money are the main thing, but the essence of the home is its spiritual conduct.
To conclude, the connection between the teaching and the progression of the Rambam's Yad Chazakah where we currently are. We are in Sefer Avodah, and in the previous days we saw the connection in the first halachos: Beis Habechirah, Klei Hamikdash Vehahovdim Bo. We have reached Hilchos Issurei Mizbeach, as we already saw in the teaching of the previous day, and today's teaching is connected to the final halachah in Hilchos Issurei Mizbeach. What is written there in the final halachah? That when a person builds a house of prayer, it should be more beautiful than his own dwelling - that the shul should be more beautiful than his own home. And the Rambam cites the verse "All the choice parts are for Hashem" - that the very best you have should go to G-dliness. And this is essentially the content of the teaching: your own house is not the objective, but rather the shul, the house of prayer to Hashem, is the essence and the ultimate purpose - the goal in life. This is the connection between the teaching and this progression in the order of Yad Chazakah.