The seventy-second "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Sunday, 2 Adar I, 5703.
Shiurim: Chumash, Terumah, first parsha with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, the 2nd of the month, one says from chapter 10 through chapter 17 inclusive.
Tanya, on this day we begin a new chapter, chapter 27, which will continue over several of the coming days, from the word "Ve'im" until page 34, ending with the words "eser mamash".
The source of the daily teaching is a letter written by the Rebbe Rayatz in the month of Menachem Av 5688. In this letter, which is not particularly long, the Rebbe Rayatz sets forth the distinctive approach of the Alter Rebbe as compared with the approach of his colleagues, the other disciples of the Maggid, and expands on the matter somewhat.
The essential point, as the Rebbe brings the precise and condensed quotation here, is that the Alter Rebbe's approach was that avodah should be avodah with the mind. The Rebbe Rayatz explains there that there is an advantage in the avodah of the heart and there is an advantage in the avodah of the mind - the mind cannot exist without the heart, and the heart cannot exist without the mind - and the question is who steers matters; and he explains that the Alter Rebbe arranged that the avodah should be the avodah of the mind.
I will add one sentence in order to understand the matter: in general it is explained that the difference between the mind and the heart, between intellect and emotion, is that the intellect - the mind - seeks to investigate and know the truth of a thing, whereas the heart seeks what the thing does to it, how it is moved by it and what it arouses within it. Consequently the heart does not always tend to accept a thing as it truly is, but rather as it suits it; whereas the mind is more capable of accepting a thing according to its truth - even if the thing does not appeal to you or suit you, and even if you have not yet integrated yourself with this line, at least you will know what the truth is.
This is the intent of the heading, that the Alter Rebbe arranged that the avodah should be the avodah of the mind. And now let us see the details: "Our great Rebbe [the Alter Rebbe] set before anash the avodah of the mind" - that avodas Hashem should be steered by the mind. And he specifies: "to search for the truth" - to search in everything for what its truth is, and not how it is comfortable for you or how it excites you; "to scrutinize every movement" - that a person should examine himself, that every movement he makes and everything he lives with "should be only according to the truth", and not an expression of personal emotion or temperament and the like.
"And it comes through avodah" - in order truly to succeed in having every movement be according to the truth, one must work at it; it does not come naturally and fluidly without avodah, since without avodah a person is generally drawn after his natural inclinations.
And now the Rebbe Rayatz explains from the other side. Seemingly a person might think that if the goal is to be truthful - and as there is a tendency, explained as the tendency of the animal soul, of "all or nothing", meaning: if according to the truth then absolutely, and if I am not entirely according to the truth then it is worth nothing; what have I gained with one percent or two? Regarding this he immediately explains: "And this avodah is not as those who err in it err completely" - this avodah, that one's movements be truthful, is not as others err in it with a complete error.
And what is the error? People err "in thinking that one must dismantle mountains and shatter boulders". "Mountains" and "boulders" are of course a metaphor for the animal soul, as the Gemara says that "it appears to him like a mountain" - the mountain is the animal soul, the yetzer hara; and a boulder - sometimes the heart is a heart of stone. There is a person who thinks that his avodah will be successful only if he manages to dismantle the mountains and shatter the boulders, meaning that he must change completely; and in his words, "to turn the world over" - not the great world, but his own small world, to be completely transformed.
Regarding this he says that this is an error. It is not necessary that everything be made entirely perfect in order for it to be called that you are acting according to the truth. And what is the correct approach, the complete truth? "That every avodah and act, even the smallest, whatever it may be, done with true intention - that is enough" - if you performed the smallest action, but you did it with true intention, and you fulfilled the Alter Rebbe's directive, even though perhaps ninety-nine percent of your affairs are still not connected to the truth at all - you have nevertheless touched one point.
And he specifies: "a brachah with intention" - to say a brachah with intention; it takes perhaps a few seconds, but one should say it with intention and truly think about the Holy One, blessed be He. A second example: "the meanings of the words of the tefillah properly" - he does not say that the entire tefillah must be as it should be, but that that particular word in the tefillah should be done properly. As the Rebbe once wrote to a Jew who complained that he could not concentrate during the entire tefillah - he knows himself, it does not work - and the Rebbe suggested that he divide it into sections: on a certain day he should exert himself in one section, and the next day in another section. Here too the intent is that that particular word in the tefillah should be "properly".
What is "properly"? "With preparation of the heart and with the knowledge of before Whom you stand" - first of all, that you be prepared in advance for the matter, and out of the knowledge of before Whom you stand. There is a wording in the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch (siman 94:7), let us read his words: that a person standing in prayer should see himself as though the Shechinah rests opposite him, and he should remove all foreign thoughts from himself until his thought and intention remain pure in his tefillah. This is how a person must pray, and to do the entire tefillah in this manner is not easy; but at the very least in that one word that you said you should feel: I am now standing before the Holy One, blessed be He, and I am directing my thoughts to be completely clean and pure.
Or "a verse of Chumash with the knowledge that it is the word of Hashem" - say one verse in Chumash, but say that verse with the knowledge that you are now saying the word of Hashem, and you are not telling a story or something that merely interests you, but the word of Hashem. Or "a verse of Tehillim" - it may be that during the entire shiur of Tehillim you did not have exact intention, and the whole chapter you did not manage, but in one verse be focused so that it should truly be. This is called avodah - focused avodah, without thinking that one must turn the entire world over.
Or "and a good trait, to draw the heart of one's fellow close with love and affection" - to arouse a good trait, to draw close the heart of your fellow by loving him and cherishing him with true ahavas Yisrael. In one particular, focused movement of the soul, this is already success - and this is called doing the avodah properly.
And he concludes: on the one hand he said what is required, and on the other hand he said that not everything is necessary; and if not everything is necessary, one might think the matter is easy. Regarding this he concludes and says: "It is true that in order to reach this one needs great and mighty exertion" - in order to reach the point that one word should be as it should be, that one movement of the soul should be as it should be, requires great effort; it is not "just one more word, what is the big deal", but rather even that particular word and that particular verse require exertion.
And in what does the exertion express itself? "Simply to study much and to understand" - one must study much Torah and understand, and all the study should be focused, so that ultimately you will succeed at that one point, at that one word, in doing what needs to be done. "Each one according to his level" - each one according to his level, according to his time and according to his ability, that he should study much and understand what he is studying, "and then Hashem will help him that it be according to the truth". That is, if you exert yourself and invest at least in the effort to study much and to understand, the Holy One, blessed be He, will help you that in certain points you will be according to the truth. This is the way in which the Alter Rebbe arranged the avodah before anash.