The two hundred and twelfth "room" in the hall of Hayom Yom.
Sunday, 24 Sivan 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Sunday we begin a new parshah - Korach, the first section with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, the 24th of the month, we say from chapter 113 up to and including chapter 118.
Tanya, on this day we still continue in chapter 7 of "Shaar Yichud Vehaemunah". The daily shiur begins on page 83 with the words "Vehinei mikan", and concludes on page 166 with the words "hakol echad".
The daily teaching is taken from a letter written by the Rebbe Rayatz on today's date, 24 Sivan, three years earlier - 24 Sivan in the year 5700. The letter is addressed to a Jew, and as written in the quoted opening: "Who asks what constitutes his hiskashrus to me, since I do not know him by face". That Jew asked the Rebbe what he could do to be connected to him, and to this the Rebbe Rayatz replies that even though they have no acquaintance and he does not know his face, it is nevertheless possible to be connected.
Before the answer of how a connection is possible without knowing someone by face - which is the continuation of the teaching - an interesting passage appears in the letter in which the Rebbe Rayatz addresses the concept of "acquaintance". What is the acquaintance between a Rebbe and a chossid? "Knowing by face" does not mean knowing one's facial appearance or picture, but rather, as he details, true acquaintance is spiritual acquaintance: knowing what you learn, how you conduct yourself in the fulfillment of mitzvos, and the state of your character traits (middos) - this is called spiritual acquaintance.
And this acquaintance, says the Rebbe Rayatz, depends on you: if you write what you learn, what your conduct is, what your middos are and what you are involved in - then I will know you. This is in regard to acquaintance.
But the question is what hiskashrus is, since it is possible that there is acquaintance and no hiskashrus, because hiskashrus is an additional matter. And on this the Rebbe Rayatz explains: True hiskashrus, if you wish to be connected in a true bond to the Rebbe, is expressed through the study of Torah. As a first fundamental statement - the basis of true hiskashrus must be through Torah alone.
That Jew wrote to the Rebbe what he learns and which mitzvos he fulfills - but this is acquaintance, and it is still not hiskashrus. What is hiskashrus - through Torah, "when he learns my maamarei chassidus, reads the sichos and associates with my friends, anash, and the students, the temimim, may they live, in their study and in their farbrengens" - that you learn with chassidim and farbreng with them - "and fulfills my request in saying Tehillim and in keeping the study times". The Rebbe's request to say Tehillim refers to saying the daily Tehillim every day, and saying the entire book of Tehillim on Shabbos Mevarchim; and keeping the study times - that if it is a yeshiva student, he should keep the sedarim, and if it is a married man, he should learn the shiurim that the Rebbe wants every Jew to learn every day. And when these matters are fulfilled, "behold, in this is the hiskashrus"; the hiskashrus depends on this.
It turns out, as stated, that there is acquaintance and there is hiskashrus, and here there is a reference to the matter of hiskashrus.
And the connection to this teaching in the Rambam's Yad Hachazakah, continuing our presence in Sefer Taharah, is to the laws of Tumas Ochlin (impurity of foods), and it is an interesting connection [and there is also a lengthy sichah from the Rebbe on this halachah in the Rambam]. The Rambam says that food becomes impure if it touches an impure thing, a creeping creature (sheretz) and the like, but there are conditions that only upon their fulfillment can the food become impure - one of them is that it must be human food, since animal food does not become impure.
And there is another condition, which if fulfilled, the food will not become impure even if it is human food and even if liquid touched it beforehand - what is called "susceptible to receive impurity": as long as the food is attached and connected to its root, says the Rambam, even by a small root, it does not receive impurity; in order to receive impurity it must be detached. And this is the content of the daily teaching: what causes you to be connected spiritually - when you are connected, it guards you so that the opposite of purity will not, Heaven forbid, apply to a person.