The one hundred and eighteenth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Monday, 12 Tishrei 5704.
Shiurim: Chumash — the portion of Berachah, second aliyah, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, on the 12th of the month, recite from chapter 66 through chapter 68 inclusive.
Tanya: On this day we conclude Iggeret 21. The daily portion begins on page 266 with the words "ach gam," and ends at the conclusion of the letter with the words "yavo Shilo."
The daily saying is very brief, and its source is a letter written by the Rebbe Rayatz in 5698. A chassid reported to the Rebbe Rayatz that he had taken part in a gathering of a certain yeshiva called "Tiferes Yisrael" — a non-chassidic yeshiva — and was among the speakers. He recounted that when he addressed the students and the assembled crowd, he urged the need to establish a fixed session for studying mussar, and especially the Tanya, and reported this to the Rebbe Rayatz.
The Rebbe Rayatz writes to him that he greatly enjoyed what he had written, shares with him a personal story of his own in this area, and awakens him regarding the matter of instilling the study of Chassidus and Tanya in many places — how much this accomplishes, and that one should not think that perhaps there are not enough "buyers" or that there are no suitable people.
Among the things he mentions, the Rebbe Rayatz brings the brief teaching cited here, and writes: "A covenant has been sealed that persuasion and effort, carried out with wise counsel and with a closeness of mind, do not return empty." There is a covenant that the Holy One, blessed be He, sealed — something that cannot fail to occur. Regarding what was this covenant sealed? "For persuasion" — a person who engages in outreach in matters of spreading the Torah and the innermost dimension of the Torah, "and effort" — one who labors at this, "with wise counsel" — in a wise manner, how to instill the inner dimension of the Torah into every audience and every place, "and with a closeness of mind" — not in an aggressive way, but through a path of drawing close.
When one works on this and campaigns for it in this matter and that — there is a "covenant sealed" that the Holy One, blessed be He, has established, "which does not return empty"; there is never a situation in which the endeavor does not succeed. Whoever wishes to instill Chassidus among the people and the community — the matter will most certainly and assuredly succeed.
The Rebbe used this expression in many letters he wrote to Jews. Many times there were those who wrote to the Rebbe that they found themselves in a place where they felt they had no one at all to spread [Judaism] to and no one for whom to work; and the Rebbe always replied that one should always engage in outreach, and there is no doubt that it will certainly succeed.