The one hundred and twenty-eighth "room" in the hall of Hayom Yom.
Sunday, 28 Adar II 5703.
Shiurim: We begin a new parshah - Chumash, Tazria, first section, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim: For the 28th of the month, we say from chapter 135 up to and including chapter 139.
Tanya: We continue in chapter 39. The daily shiur begins with the word "ve'olam", and concludes on page 104 with the words "Elokus mamesh".
The daily teaching deals with customs related to a bris milah, and simply put, the connection to this day is that we begin learning Parshas Tazria, in the first section of which the mitzvah of bris milah on the eighth day is written - "And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised". There are two points here connected to a bris milah.
First point: "The Harachaman for a bris milah is said". What does this mean? In printed siddurim it appears toward the end of Birchas Hamazon, that when the meal is a seudas bris milah, there are special "Harachaman" insertions for a bris milah. What is the novelty here? The Alter Rebbe, in his siddur, presents the order of Birchas Hamazon and does not mention at all that there is a special "Harachaman" for a bris milah - it does not appear at all. In contrast, the Tzemach Tzedek, in the siddur he used for davening, wrote handwritten glosses on certain places, and in Birchas Hamazon he noted next to the place toward the end "Harachaman for a bris milah" - meaning he indicated that the "Harachaman" for a bris milah should be said.
The author of Shaar Hakollel, Rav Lavut, who published the famous Torah Or siddur, is uncertain whether the Alter Rebbe's opinion was actually to say it or not, and cites halachic opinions on whether this is considered an interruption before the blessing on wine or not. Therefore he wrote that when he published the Torah Or siddur, in the first part of the siddur he did not include the "Harachaman", and in the second part he added it as a supplement, because he was in doubt as to whether it is said or not. At any rate, we see there is a discussion about the matter, and therefore the Rebbe determines here in the teaching that "The Harachaman for a bris milah is said" - that we do indeed have the custom to say it, as it already appears in its proper place in newly printed siddurim.
Then comes the second point. In the year 5689 the Rebbe Rayatz was in Warsaw, at a bris milah of a baby from the Kaplan family, and the Rebbe Rayatz was the sandek at the bris. At the seudas bris he discussed several matters connected to a bris milah, and a quote is brought here from just one point he made at that meal. As the teaching states: "From a sichah at a seudas bris milah" - a sichah the Rebbe Rayatz delivered during a seudas bris milah.
"At a bris milah we say" there is a text the entire congregation says at a bris milah: "Just as he has entered into the covenant, so may he enter into Torah, the chupah, and good deeds" - this is the blessing wished at a bris milah. In one of his letters the Rebbe closely examines why specifically these three expressions are mentioned - "into Torah, the chupah, and good deeds"; and explains that they correspond to the three Avos. "Into Torah" - corresponding to Yaakov Avinu, of whom it is said "a wholesome man, dwelling in tents", the tents of Shem and Ever, alluding to the study of Torah. "The chupah" - corresponding to Yitzchak, and for this the Rebbe notes two reasons: first, that Yitzchak was bound upon the altar, in whose place the Shechinah subsequently descended in the Beis Hamikdash, and the Midrash says that the descent of the Shechinah into the Beis Hamikdash is called "the chupah of the Holy One, blessed be He"; and second, that Yitzchak is the only one of the Avos regarding whose wedding the Torah elaborates at length - therefore "chupah" is connected to Yitzchak. "And good deeds" - corresponding to Avraham, who excelled in good deeds and was a man of chesed, as the Torah recounts regarding his hospitality. At any rate, this is the text wished at a bris milah.
The Rebbe Rayatz added and said: "And it is our custom to give an advance payment for the child's education" - that it is our custom to give an advance payment for the child's tuition during the seudas bris, so that when he grows up and goes to learn in yeshivah, the tuition is already given in advance at the bris milah. And the conclusion, as the Rebbe notes: "And the Rebbe Shlita (the Rebbe Rayatz) gave a certain sum". The Rebbe Rayatz, who was at that meal, after saying it is our custom to give in advance, gave a certain sum. In the place where these matters appear, in the Rebbe's diary, the Rebbe notes that it was a sum of twenty zlotys that the Rebbe Rayatz gave, "saying, 'This is for the yeshivah'".
In connection with the Rebbe being the sandek at a bris milah, it appears in the sichos in Toras Menachem, on 7 Adar 5711, that the Rebbe was a sandek and repeated this point, saying that this custom should be established at every bris milah - to give an advance payment to the yeshivah for the child's education. In that sichah in 5711 the Rebbe gave five dollars, and explained why specifically five dollars: because this is the monetary value of those twenty zlotys that the Rebbe Rayatz gave in the year 5689. (And if we try to translate this to our times - whoever wants to know how much that comes out to today, in 5784 - it is roughly sixty-one and a half dollars, slightly less; this is the value of the twenty zlotys the Rebbe Rayatz gave).
And on that occasion, at that same bris I am relating, the Rebbe also gave a siddur to the child's father, and told him they should keep the siddur for the child until he grows up and goes to yeshivah, adding that from this siddur he will learn the alef-beis.
In conclusion, regarding the Rambam - where we see that the shiurim align with the sequence of the sefer Yad Hachazakah: we are currently in Sefer Zeraim. In the previous teachings we already saw the first halachos within it - Hilchos Kilayim, Matnos Aniyim, Terumos, Maasros, Maaser Sheni and Neta Revai - and now we have reached Hilchos Bikkurim. And what is the connection between the daily topic and Hilchos Bikkurim? For regarding bikkurim the verse states "The first of the first fruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God" - that even one who grows a crop must bring the first of it to the Holy One, blessed be He. This concept is particularly connected to a bris milah, for, as the Alter Rebbe brings in the Shulchan Aruch, at a bris milah the entry of the holy soul into the baby begins - which is the "first" that he gives.