The two hundred and thirty-ninth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Shabbos Kodesh, 21 Tammuz 5703.
Lessons: Chumash, Pinchas, Shevi'i with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, on the 21st of the month, one recites from chapter 104 until chapter 105.
Tanya: On this day we conclude chapter 4 of Iggeret HaTeshuvah. The lesson begins on page 94, and the explanation of the matter concludes on page 95 with the final word of chapter 4, "Havayah, etc."
In today's saying, a custom is presented first, followed by the saying itself. "One does not recite the blessing of Shehecheyanu during the Three Weeks, even on Shabbos." This is ruled in principle in the Shulchan Aruch (siman 551), that one does not recite Shehecheyanu during these days. The reason is straightforward: with Shehecheyanu we thank the Holy One, blessed be He, for having brought us to this time, and since we are in the days of the Three Weeks, which mark the destruction, it is not fitting to bless that we have reached this time.
The differences of opinion in halachah concern Shabbos: some hold that on Shabbos one does recite shehecheyanu, and some hold that one does not; and there are opinions regarding the case in which the seventeenth of Tammuz itself falls on Shabbos and the fast is deferred to Sunday, whether on that Shabbos one recites [the blessing] or not. Here the Rebbe brings the ruling of our custom, that one does not recite shehecheyanu during the Three Weeks, even on Shabbos — unlike Sefiras HaOmer, on whose Shabbosos one does recite shehecheyanu.
The saying itself is a synopsis of a maamar of the previous Rebbe, the dibbur hamaschil "Amar Rabbi Yehuda, lo bara HaKadosh Baruch Hu et olamo ela vechu'" (Rabbi Yehuda said, the Holy One, blessed be He, created His world only, etc.), from the year 5694, and from it the Rebbe brings a passage connected to the manner in which one is to relate to the place of the Beis HaMikdash during the time of the churban.
And thus it states: "It is written: And they shall make Me a Sanctuary and I will dwell within them" — this is the wording of the verse in which the Torah commands, in Parshas Terumah, regarding the building of the Beis HaMikdash. And our Sages were precise: it does not say "within it" but rather "within them," and the intent is "within each and every one of Israel." There is in this a spiritual meaning, which is derived also from the physical meaning.
What is the spiritual meaning? "Besocham" — "that within each and every one of Israel, the innermost point of his heart is a sanctuary for His dwelling, may He be blessed." In other words, the innermost part of a Jew's soul is the Beis HaMikdash that exists within the heart of each and every one.
There is an interesting parallel here between the physical Sanctuary and the Sanctuary of the soul. At the place upon which the Beis HaMikdash stood, there are the structures in which the Beis HaMikdash was situated, and there is the place — the foundations upon which it stood. "And behold, the place of the Mikdash," meaning the foundation and base upon which the Beis HaMikdash stood, "even during the time of exile and desolation — it is holy." The holiness never departed from the place; even during the time of exile, and even when the buildings are desolate or destroyed, the place itself remains holy.
"And as it is brought in Shemot Rabbah, ch. 2: "Rav Acha said, the Shechinah never departs from the Western Wall"." That is to say, the place always remains holy, even at the time of the churban; "and the entire matter of desolation" and the absence of the revelation of holiness "is in the buildings" alone — the structures themselves were destroyed, the walls fell and were burned, but the place itself remained in its holiness, and the foundations remained in their holiness — and in particular the Western Wall, whose wall itself remained.
And what is the analogue? "And so it is also in the private Mikdash within each and every one of Israel" — since "I will dwell within them" is within each and every one, here too there is the desolation that is in the buildings, and there are the foundations that remain in their holiness. "For the foundation is whole, pure and clean" — that is to say, in the very essence of a Jew's soul no weakness ever befalls.
"as it is written, 'I sleep but my heart is awake'": What does "I sleep but my heart is awake" mean? "And it is stated in the Midrash Rabbah: 'I sleep from the mitzvos but my heart is awake to acts of kindness, I sleep from the tzedakos but my heart is awake to perform them'". That is to say, even though there are certain parts — the revealed part — in which one does not see wakefulness, the inner dimension always remains awake.
"For all matters of desolation, Heaven forbid, that exist within a Jew" — a state in which a Jew is not a tzaddik, and at times even less than a beinoni — where is the deficiency? "It is only akin to the structures that are outside the foundation," that is, in the revealed and upper portion; there desolation can occur, "but the foundation of the private Mikdash remains in its holiness." The inner foundation always remains in its holiness and is never lost. This is the conclusion of the aforementioned passage, which appears almost toward the end of the maamar that was mentioned.
Regarding the allusion to the sefarim of the Rambam: yesterday we concluded Sefer Mishpatim, and it is evident that Sefer Shoftim is located mainly at the conclusion of the "Hayom Yom", precisely in the final days in which the Rebbe concludes the "Hayom Yom" — until the end of the month of Kislev. Nevertheless, even in the daily saying one can find an allusion to the first halachot of Sefer Shoftim, which are the halachot of Sanhedrin.
In Hilchos Sanhedrin, at the beginning of the first chapter, the Rambam establishes the location of the Sanhedrin: he writes that they sit at the entrance of the Azarah, at the entrance of the Har HaBayis. Here too there is a reference to the fact that even if one comes and does not see the Sanhedrin sitting at the entrance, and one does not see the entrance of the Azarah or the entrance of the Bayis — indeed there is desolation, but the desolation is only in the buildings, whereas the foundation certainly remains always in all its goodness.