"Room" two hundred and eighteen in the hall of Hayom Yom.
Shabbos Kodesh, Rosh Chodesh, 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Korach, Shvi'i, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, this is the last day of the month, the 30th of the month, we say from chapter 140 to chapter 150 inclusive.
Tanya, on this day we learn all of chapter 8 in "Shaar Yichud VehaEmunah". The chapter begins with the word "Vehineh" and ends with the words "umekor hachayus".
The daily teaching is in two parts. The first part relates to the practice regarding the laws of Shnayim Mikra VeEchad Targum, followed by a teaching said by the Alter Rebbe. We will begin with the first section: "Reviewing the parshah - Shnayim Mikra VeEchad Targum - is done verse by verse". As is known, when a person reads the weekly parshah Shnayim Mikra VeEchad Targum - the Alter Rebbe brings in his Shulchan Aruch (Siman 285, Seif 3) two customs on how to do this: one custom is to do it paragraph by paragraph, and the second custom is to do it verse by verse; and there he says that the correct custom is verse by verse. [In parentheses he notes that it can be done in any manner, but the proper custom is verse by verse].
In connection to this, the Rebbe brings the conclusion: we review the parshah verse by verse - a verse from the Torah, and again a verse from the Torah with its Targum.
He states an additional point: "And we also read the Haftorah - or both Haftoros: if it is Shabbos Rosh Chodesh or combined parshiyos and the like". Here the Rebbe refers to that Jew who is reading Shnayim Mikra VeEchad Targum - not for the congregation, but for the individual - that he must always also say the Haftorah.
There are special Shabboses, such as Shabbos Rosh Chodesh - like this Shabbos, the 30th of the month, which is Shabbos Rosh Chodesh - when there is a special Haftorah. On Shabbos Rosh Chodesh we do not say the Haftorah of Korach, but only the Haftorah for Shabbos Rosh Chodesh; and similarly if there are combined parshiyos.
In the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, in that same section (Siman 285, Seif 10), he writes that one should only say the Haftorah that is read in public. In contrast, there is an opinion brought by the Chida to the contrary - that one should read only the Haftorah of the parshah. Therefore, to satisfy both opinions, we say both the Haftorah that will be read in public and the Haftorah of the parshah that will not be read in public - two Haftoros; and if there are two on that Shabbos, we say two.
Now there is a teaching here from a letter written by the Rebbe Rayatz on 6 Elul 5697. We already had this letter in the teaching of the 10th [of the month], from the same letter, which was addressed to the same person further on; and here appears the first part.
As a background introduction: In that letter, the Rebbe Rayatz recounts at great length about a young scholar named R. Zev Dov, who arrived from the yeshivos of Minsk and Slutsk, from the yeshivos of the misnagdim, and was a tremendous gaon, possessing great breadth and sharpness of knowledge. However, he also possessed a terrible arrogance, and would speak in a manner that overpowered everyone's opinions, boasting of his successes with arrogance. He came to Liozna, to the Alter Rebbe, and caused a great stir throughout the entire area that this young scholar had arrived in Liozna.
It is told there, that after a few months in which he applied himself diligently to the study of chassidus, a positive change began to be seen in him, and after half a year a fundamental change had already occurred in him, to the point that he became one of the foremost students of the Alter Rebbe.
Once he sat at a farbrengen with his friends and related that during that period he had entered the Alter Rebbe for yechidus several times, and he shared what happened in his first yechidus. At the opening of the yechidus - which does not appear here in the teaching - the Alter Rebbe asked him: What are you lacking? And he answered: I do not know what I am lacking, and I also do not feel that I am lacking anything. And this was the Alter Rebbe's response, containing the teaching:
"The Alter Rebbe's reply to an outstanding young scholar and famous talent, when he entered for his first yechidus in the year 5555 in Liozna". What did the Alter Rebbe say to him in response to his statement that he did not feel he lacked anything? "Ruchniyus and gashmiyus are opposites in their very essence; an advantage in gashmiyus is a deficiency in ruchniyus" - ruchniyus and gashmiyus are two essentially opposite things; something that is considered an advantage in gashmiyus, that same thing in ruchniyus is a deficiency.
After the Alter Rebbe finished this sentence, the Rebbe Rayatz relates in the letter that the Alter Rebbe leaned on his elbows in dveikus, and when he roused himself he continued and said to him the concluding sentence: "In gashmiyus - 'one who is happy with his lot' is of the greatest virtue, and through 'avodah' he will reach the highest levels" - in gashmiyus, one who is happy with his lot and with what he has possesses the greatest virtue, and if he works on himself he can reach the highest levels. But "in ruchniyus - 'one who is happy with his lot' is the greatest deficiency, and he descends and falls, Heaven forbid" - in ruchniyus it is the opposite; one who is happy with his lot has the greatest deficiency, since from there he will go and descend and lose even what he has, because he is happy with what he has.
This is essentially what the Alter Rebbe said to that young scholar who said he lacked nothing - meaning, in other words, that he was happy with what he had: There is no such thing. In ruchniyus there is never a situation where a person is happy with what he has; you must always strive for much more.
The allusion in the Rambam's Yad HaChazakah: We have finished Sefer Taharah, and are now beginning the teachings corresponding to Sefer Nezikin. In Sefer Nezikin, as in every book of the Rambam, there is a verse brought as an opening and introduction to the book. The verse that appears as the opening to Sefer Nezikin is "Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge" (Mishlei 22).
The Radak mentions this verse, and says that a person should not covet the attainment of more gashmiyus, but rather should be immersed only in ruchniyus. And this is essentially the content of the teaching: not to be greedy for gashmiyus - in gashmiyus one can be satisfied with what one has; and conversely, in ruchniyus one must always be eager, and never be satisfied.. This is exactly the content of the verse introducing Sefer Nezikin.