The 216th "room" in the hall of Hayom Yom.
Thursday, 28 Sivan 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Korach, Chamishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, 28th of the month, from Chapter 105 to and including Chapter 109.
Tanya, we are still in the latter part of Chapter 7 of "Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah". The daily shiur begins with the words "ki makor", on page 84, and ends on page 168 with the word "middosav".
The daily teaching, which was originally written in Yiddish, is taken from a letter written by the Rebbe Rayatz on 8 Tammuz 5619. The Rebbe Rayatz brings there at length a story that happened in the year 5575, two years after the histalkus of the Alter Rebbe, with the Tzemach Tzedek. It is told there that the Tzemach Tzedek had several questions, and he greatly yearned to see the Alter Rebbe - as he was accustomed to seeing him even after the histalkus - so that he would resolve for him the many questions that had accumulated.
A famous story is described there: The Tzemach Tzedek went to pray early in the morning, and on the way he met a chossid, a merchant in the market, named Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu. Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, who saw him walking to the synagogue, asked him for a gemilas chesed - a loan of five or six rubles that would help him that day in the market. The Tzemach Tzedek did not have money in his pocket at that moment, and therefore told him that after the prayer he should come to him and he would give it to him.
When the Tzemach Tzedek entered the synagogue, the saying of Chazal regarding the great importance of gemilas chassadim immediately came to his mind, and he thought he had not acted well in putting him off - since it was market day, and that is when all business begins, and if Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu waited until the end of the prayer, he might lose business deals. Therefore, the Tzemach Tzedek did not put on his tallis and tefillin, returned to his home, took the money, and after great effort found Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu in the market - which was already bustling - and gave him the gemilas chesed he requested. He then returned to the synagogue to wrap himself in the tallis and put on tefillin.
Immediately after he finished wrapping himself in the tallis and putting on tefillin, he suddenly saw the Alter Rebbe entering the synagogue with a shining face - two years after his histalkus - and the Alter Rebbe turned to him and said: "One who gives a gemilas chesed to a Jew with a whole heart - the gates of the supernal chambers are open before him."
Following this story comes the daily teaching: "The Tzemach Tzedek, when relating an episode of his life to his son, my grandfather the Rebbe [Adoni Avi Zekeni Mori Verabbi], concluded". Several years later, in the year 5616, the Tzemach Tzedek told his son - the Rebbe Maharash, grandfather of the Rebbe Rayatz - the aforementioned story. Here it is brought briefly, "an episode of his life," but the reference is to this story.
The Tzemach Tzedek concluded and said to the Rebbe Maharash: "By helping a Jew in his livelihood, even to earn seventy kopecks (a small coin in Russia) in calf-trading, all the gates of the supernal chambers are opened before him." All the gates of the supernal chambers are opened before such a Jew who helped another, even in a small financial matter. This the Tzemach Tzedek told his son, the Rebbe Maharash.
The next passage: "Several years later", in the year 5639, "my grandfather the Rebbe [the Rebbe Maharash] told all of the above to my father the Rebbe [Adoni Avi Mori Verabbi, the Rebbe Rashab], and added" an additional sentence to his father's words: "One must even know the way to the supernal chambers!" - meaning, as we said, when you help another, all the gates of the supernal chambers are opened before you, and although one must know the way to them - nevertheless, "yet this does not detract at all; the main thing is to help with a whole heart and with feeling, that there should be pleasure in doing a favor for a Jew." If you do not know the way, it does not hinder so much. The main thing is to help another with a whole heart and with feeling, that you should have a special delight in doing a favor for a Jew.
And the Rebbe Rashab, who concludes the letter, in which it spoke explicitly about helping someone in a certain matter, turns to one of the activists and says: "I am writing to my soul-friend, the minister of chesed," and asks him not to rest and not to forget until he accomplishes that certain matter.