"Cheder" two hundred ninety-three in the Hall of Hayom Yom.
Thursday, 16 Elul 5703.
Chumash: Tavo, Chamishi, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, on the 16th of the month, from chapter 79 through chapter 84, including 82. And the three chapters for this day are 46, 47 and 48 — the chapters for the month of Elul.
Tanya: On this day we continue to study Iggeret 15 of Iggeret HaKodesh. The lesson begins on page 108, column 2, with the words "V'hinei klalut," and concludes on page 123 with the words "kemo sheyitba'er."
The source of the daily teaching is a letter written by the Rebbe Rayatz on 26 Teves 5696, which also appears as the introductory letter to the sefer "Poke'ach Ivrim" of the Mitteler Rebbe. There the saying itself appears in a much briefer form, though its explanation is longer. The lengthier version before us appears in another letter from this date, 16 Elul in the year 5700.
I will first give the background of the first letter, which is the earliest source for this teaching. It is related there that the Alter Rebbe appointed his son, the Mitteler Rebbe, to occupy himself with the education of the young married men and their guidance. Once the Mitteler Rebbe held a farbrengen with his students, and at that same gathering the elder chassidim were also present. The Mitteler Rebbe spoke with the young men with tremendous emotion — literally "with an outpouring of soul" — about how great one's service of Hashem must be, and how great one's seriousness must be.
It is well known that the Mitteler Rebbe was physically weak — weak of heart and frail in health — and when he would speak with great emotion, this affected his health. After that farbrengen he did not feel well for several days. The elder chassidim came to visit him and asked him: "You know that you are weak, and that you are forbidden to enter into great emotional states; why, then, did you speak at that farbrengen with such intense emotion, and did not guard your health?"
He answered them: "I heard from my father that one must look at a Jew as he is included in the primordial thought of Adam-Kadmon" — as will appear also in the saying we will see shortly. This is such a lofty level in Godliness, from which the entire seder hishtalshelut begins — as it were, the first Divine thought concerning the creation of the worlds and the souls. One must look at a Jew as he is rooted there, and there he includes not only himself but all the generations that descend from him. And by the same measure — not only should one look at another this way, but at oneself as well: for the person himself is also included, and the impact of his deeds is not upon himself alone but upon all the generations that will issue from him.
"And when I saw this situation before me — how could I not have been moved? That I am able to affect a Jew in such a way? The responsibility is so great, and I did not measure up to it, and I was overcome with tremendous emotion." Thus the Mitteler Rebbe describes what it means to see a soul as it is above, in a lofty level, and there is a lengthy discussion of this in the letter.
The second letter, which is the daily teaching, is a letter of the Rebbe Rayatz from the year 5700, from this date, 16 Elul. It concerns someone who was supposed to open a school for girls, and did not succeed. He wrote to the Rebbe Rayatz that they had not succeeded, and the Rebbe Rayatz was very displeased, that he writes to him: "I am very sorry that I did not occupy myself with this properly," and he explains to him how important it is to have an influence on others. And then comes the quotation; let us look into the saying and read it from within.
And thus he writes: "the Alter Rebbe explained the teaching". There is an expression in the Gemara that speaks of both directions — the negative and the positive: that a person who, God forbid, kills one soul of Israel is as though he destroyed an entire world, and conversely — "whoever sustains one soul of Israel is as though he sustained an entire world". Here only the positive expression is cited.
The Alter Rebbe once explained: what is "one soul," and why is it "a whole world"? In the original Yiddish, and in translation: "One must look at a Jew as he "exists" in the primordial thought of Adam Kadmon, and there "exists" every neshamah together with all the generations of its descendants until the coming of Mashiach, the righteous redeemer" — that is, when one looks at him as he is included there, he is not some small detail, but rather every neshamah stands there together with all the generations destined to issue from it, until the coming of Mashiach, generation after generation, all included within it.
If so, when you look at the soul as it is in its source, you must know that your involvement with it is in effect with all the generations that will descend from it: "And when one does a favor for a Jew [materially, and certainly spiritually] — one benefits all these souls until the end of all generations" — not only him, but him and his son and his descendants and all who issue from him until the end of all generations. This tremendous power — how to look at another, and consequently also at yourself, in the words of the Alter Rebbe — completely transforms one's engagement in everything one does and accomplishes for another Jew.