The one hundred and fifty-ninth "room" in the hall of the Hayom Yom.
Wednesday, 30 Nissan, Rosh Chodesh, 15 of the Omer, 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Kedoshim, Revii, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, 30th of the month: say the final chapters, from Chapter 140 to and including Chapter 150.
Tanya: we are in Chapter 44. The daily shiur begins on page 126 with the word "ve'afim", and concludes on the same page with the words "vetzarfah acharei".
The daily teaching is taken from a letter written by the Rebbe Rayatz on 24 Nissan 5700, addressed to the chossid Rabbi Azriel Slonim. He asked the Rebbe where it is proper to hold farbrengens: there is an advantage to holding farbrengens in a private home, and there is an advantage to holding them in a shul - so what is the proper order?
The Rebbe Rayatz answers him, and this is a quote from the reply: "The farbrengen of seudah shlishis, Shabbos Mevarchim and yoma depagra". What is a "yoma depagra"? "On Roshei Chadoshim and the moadim of anash" - the well-known holidays, 19 Kislev and the like. All of these farbrengens "must take place in the shul", whereas "the farbrengen of melaveh malkah - at the homes of anash sheyichyu in their private homes".
And what is the reasoning that specifically a melaveh malkah is in a private home? It is possible that this is based on an explanation that the Rebbe gives in Likkutei Sichos volume 36, in Parshas Beshalach, in a sichah about melaveh malkah - that the purpose of the melaveh malkah meal is to draw the holiness of Shabbos into the weekdays as well, into the weekday meal. And so it is here too: the private home compared to the shul is like the mundane place compared to the holy place, and the whole purpose of melaveh malkah is to draw holiness into the mundane as well. Therefore, it seemingly fits that melaveh malkah farbrengens should take place in private homes.
It is interesting that in the Igros Kodesh of the Rebbe Rayatz, on the exact same day he wrote this letter - 24 Nissan - there are additional letters on the same subject. For example, he writes on that same day to chassidim in Jerusalem, Rabbi Moshe Weber and Rabbi Avraham Hirsch Hakohen: "I have derived great nachas ruach from your fixed farbrengen every Motzaei Shabbos Kodesh at the home of one of my friends, your companions, sheyichyu." In other words, the Rebbe Rayatz highly encourages holding the farbrengen specifically in people's homes.
It turns out that there was a discussion there, among the chassidim in Jerusalem, regarding the proper way to conduct themselves. It is possible that Rabbi Slonim asked the Rebbe Rayatz what is proper, since the Rebbe Rayatz replied to them on the same day thanking them for what they are doing, because that is indeed how it should be.
But for the sake of completeness, it is interesting that the Rebbe wrote a letter - in his Igros Kodesh, on Erev Rosh Chodesh Teves 5715 - to the son of Rabbi Slonim, who had received the letter of the Rebbe Rayatz, in which the Rebbe gives a slightly different perspective. The Rebbe writes to him, and I quote his wording: "Regarding establishing the location of a farbrengen, whether in the shul or in the home of one of the people" - meaning, the son asked the Rebbe the same question his father asked the Rebbe Rayatz. The Rebbe replies at length, and I will quote a sentence from later in the letter: "Do not withdraw your hand from this or from that, but do it alternately, and one cannot lay down hard-and-fast rules."
That is, the Rebbe did not write a fixed rule, as the Rebbe Rayatz had written, regarding which farbrengens should be in the home and which specifically in the shul, but rather he said that one cannot lay down hard-and-fast rules. Apparently, the matter depends on the opportunities, the places and the times - "Do not withdraw your hand from this or from that", sometimes like this and sometimes like that. It is interesting whether the fixed rule changed, or perhaps this was a personal matter for that chossid; but in any event, for the sake of a complete understanding, this is the picture of the matter.