The twenty-second "room" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Shabbos, 11 Teves 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Vayigash, seventh aliyah, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim: for the 11th day of the month, from chapter 61 through and including chapter 65.
Tanya: On this day one begins to study chapter 8 from its beginning, from the words "b'od zot" until the words "she'as'ku bahen".
The daily teaching, whose source was written in Yiddish, is taken from a sicha that the Rebbe Rayatz delivered on the last day of Pesach 5702, while he was in the United States, in Brooklyn. When the Rebbe Rayatz arrived in the United States, he aroused very strongly, with a most forceful effort, that Jews should review words of Torah wherever they go — in thought and in speech. He spoke about this with great force, that it is an obligation to warm the air of the street and to purify it, and he said: "Everyone can learn at least two or three mishnayot a week" — which is not much — "and review them by heart in order to purify the air of the street." And it is in continuation of this statement that the teaching before us comes.
The teaching goes as follows, translated from the Yiddish: "A person's life depends on the air in which he finds himself; without air one cannot live; and in whatever air a person lives — such is his life." The air has a profound influence on one's life.
I will add that during that same period the Rebbe wrote a very interesting letter on the subject, to explain and reinforce this matter of learning by heart and reviewing letters. The letter, printed in the Rebbe's Igrot Kodesh, explains at length that a person's life depends generally on two components: eating and drinking, and breathing. And breathing has a more important value than eating and drinking, for eating and drinking take place only at certain times of the day, whereas a person must breathe at all times.
The Rebbe brings various sources showing that just as with eating and drinking we see that if the food is not kosher it has a very great effect on the person — to the point that it can bring him, G-d forbid, even to matters of heresy — and likewise the quality of the food affects him also in simple physical terms; if so, if with food, which is not as essential as air since it is only needed at times, and nevertheless its kashrus affects the one who eats it — how much more so with air, which is needed far more than food, since a person breathes it constantly and takes it into himself. With air too there exists the concept that it must be pure and clean air; and the air becomes clean and pure through the speaking of words of Torah within it.
When you review words of Torah in your surroundings and let them issue forth from your mouth — and the words that a person utters are drawn out into the air, and the air carries them wherever they go — this causes the air to become pure. This is what the Rebbe Rayatz said, that whatever kind of air one lives in — such is one's life. And he elaborates: "When one lives in an air of Torah and mitzvos — one lives a healthy life, and conversely, when one lives in an air of heresy — that is a sick life," and then there is a constant tendency for a person to become, G-d forbid, ill, and to fall prey to contagious diseases — spiritual diseases.
And what is the first general remedy that will purify the air? "To cleanse the air"; the first thing one must always do is cleanse the air. "And this work of purifying the air is incumbent upon those who know how to read and who know the Torah" — it is upon them that the task of purifying the air rests.
[At that time the Rebbe Rayatz spoke, and interestingly the Rebbe included this teaching in the year 5703. Several months later, at the beginning of 5703, the Rebbe Rayatz used an interesting expression, sharing with people things that are not visible to the physical eye: when he arrived in the United States he was full of despair over the spiritual situation, and now he says that thank God, after three years, to a certain extent the stale air has, with God's help, dissipated. The students of the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva, he said, succeeded in a good and auspicious hour in opening windows of Torah onto the street, and for fifty amos in every direction the air became clean and pure. These words were spoken about half a year after the Rebbe included this saying in the "Hayom Yom", and in them he testifies that the air in the world became cleaner.]
Let us continue reading: How does one purify the air? Through letters of Torah. And the Rebbe Rayatz elaborates on how to do this — when a person stands in a store, or walks in the street, or rides the subway, while doing so he utters letters of Torah with his mouth and cleanses the air, purifying the spiritual air through the words he brings forth from his mouth. And every one of those who are familiar with the sacred texts and learned in Torah "must have something that he knows by heart," and he specifies: Chumash, Tehillim, Mishnayos, Tanya.
"At all times and in every place, one can think and utter the holy letters of the Torah."
There is a precise nuance here, and seemingly a correct one: the Rebbe Rayatz concludes that each person will be able to "think and say." And seemingly, what does he want — that we think or that we say? For we said that the purification comes about through speech, so why then does he here distinguish between "thinking" and "saying"? Seemingly the matter depends on the difference between Torah shebichsav and Torah shebe'al-peh. For the Rebbe specifies Chumash and Tehillim — which are Torah shebichsav — and Mishnayos and Tanya — which are Torah shebe'al-peh. And the halachah states that one may not recite Torah shebichsav by heart, but must read it only from the book; whereas Torah shebe'al-peh may be learned by heart. Therefore Chumash and Tehillim, which are Torah shebichsav, a person must study and know well until he can think in his mind the verses of Torah and the verses of Tehillim; whereas Mishnayos and Tanya, which are Torah shebe'al-peh, these one must also actually say.
Incidentally, this matter appears explicitly in a letter: someone asked the Rebbe about a well-known maamar of the Alter Rebbe in Likkutei Torah, Parshas Kedoshim — a short maamar called "V'daas es pnei zekenecha" [the precise title requires verification] — in which it is written that everyone must engrave the five Chumashim of the Torah in the mind of memory. The questioner asked: But it is stated that one should not learn the Written Torah by heart, so what did the Alter Rebbe mean? The Rebbe noted that the intent is not that one should recite it by heart, but rather to engrave it in the mind of memory — that one should learn it thoroughly until he is able to think about it. The Written Torah one must think, whereas the Oral Torah one must actually say, in speech with the mouth, and through this to purify all the air and all the surroundings, the entire world, so that it should be a completely pure world.