The eighty-seventh "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Monday, 17 Adar I, 5703.
Lessons: Chumash, Ki Sisa, sheni, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, 17 of the month, from chapter 83 through chapter 87 inclusive.
Tanya, chapter 30, from the words "vehinei be'emes", and the daily portion concludes on page 76 with the word "besoldeso".
I will preface a few words before today's saying. There is a well known concept regarding the maamarim of chassidus said by the Alter Rebbe - the maamarim he said "before Petersburg" and the maamarim he said "after Petersburg". "Petersburg" is the name of the place where he sat in prison, and between the maamarim he said before that and those he said afterward there is a great difference. In a sichah that the Rebbe Rayatz said on 19 Kislev 5693 he spoke at length, and in very simple terms, about the differences in the level of revelation between them.
Before Petersburg the maamarim were very short and very fiery - literally just a few lines, and that was it. After the imprisonment in Petersburg there was what is called like an olive, which when crushed gives forth its oil; and from then on the maamarim became longer and more elaborated.
Here, in today's saying, we are dealing with a saying that is highlighted as being of the type of maamarim that were before Petersburg - when the maamarim that the Alter Rebbe would say were very short and concentrated, and accomplished their effect. Let us look at the wording.
And this is what it says: "Many years before Petersburg" - and in parentheses an explanation is brought: "(where the imprisonment took place in the year 5559)", the year of the Alter Rebbe's imprisonment and the festival of redemption on 19 Kislev - "the Alter Rebbe appeared before the assembled and said". And what did he say? He said to the assembled, "In Gan Eden they sense the preciousness of this world".
Who recognizes this? Who feels the superiority of this world? And this is what he said: "Lo mibaya" not only do "the ministering angels" - who certainly recognize the superiority of this world more than we do - but "even the "first emanated beings"", the levels higher than the level of angels, the supernal Sefiros that are called "the first emanated beings", "would give up everything" they would give away everything and forgo their own level. And for what? "For the sake of amen yehei shmei rabba" so that a Jew should accomplish through saying "amen yehei shmei rabba". When a Jew says here in this world "amen yehei shmei rabba", the supernal emanated beings say: everything we have has no value at all compared to the value of the "amen yehei shmei rabba" "of a Jew, who says it with all his strength".
"As it is explained, with all his concentration" for the meaning of "with all his strength" is "with all his concentration". The Gemara in Maseches Shabbos says: "Whoever answers amen yehei shmei rabba with all his strength, his evil decree is torn up", and Rashi there explains: "with all his strength - with all his concentration". And what is "with all his concentration"? It does not mean that he should have this or that particular intention, but rather that his entire being is invested in it, and in his words "meaning that he is immersed in it".
In today's spoken language there is an expression - "be on target", meaning be focused. That is "with all his concentration": be focused and invested, your whole essence should be in it. When a Jew says "amen yehei shmei rabba" in such a way, that his entire being is invested in the matter, all the angels and all the emanated beings would give up everything for the great superiority of this matter of "amen yehei shmei rabba".
To add: at one of the Rebbe's farbrengens, on Shabbos parshas Ki Seitzei 5724, the Rebbe strongly aroused about the need to be careful to answer amen and "amen yehei shmei rabba", even upon a berachah - that even when a small child says a berachah, one must be careful to answer amen to everything. The Rebbe mentions there briefly an awesome story told about Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe, author of the "Levushim", who in his introduction brings an awesome story concerning answering amen - how one time he did not answer amen to a child's berachah, and what ruling and punishment he received from a rav who was there, who told him about a certain chassid in earlier generations who one time did not answer "amen yehei shmei rabba", and how he was punished afterward in a very severe way.
That is to say, how significant and powerful is the matter of answering amen, even to a child's berachah. And this is what the Alter Rebbe came with this statement to arouse about: the preciousness of answering amen and "amen yehei shmei rabba" here in this world. For the saying states: "These were all his words" - this was the Alter Rebbe's entire maamar; he came out to the assembled, said this one sentence, and added nothing to it.
"Which aroused in his listeners such great enthusiasm and fervor" among the assembled "that all that year they said amen yehei shmei rabba with fervor" - the maamar aroused such enthusiasm and fervor among the chassidim who heard it, that all that year, when they answered "amen yehei shmei rabba", it was with enthusiasm and with warmth and fire, as a result of the awareness that the Alter Rebbe aroused regarding answering amen and "amen yehei shmei rabba".
We will conclude with the context in which we have been speaking, about the connection of the sayings to the sequence of the sefer, to the Rambam. We are now in Sefer Haflaah, which includes Hilchos Shevuos, Hilchos Nedarim, Hilchos Nezirus and Hilchos Arachin VaCharamin. The previous saying was on the title of Sefer Haflaah, and today's saying corresponds to Hilchos Shevuos at the beginning of the sefer.
What is the connection to Hilchos Shevuos? At the beginning of the second chapter of Hilchos Shevuos there is an entire halachah in which the Rambam explains the power of "amen": when a person makes an oath, or hears an oath and answers amen to someone else's oath, it is considered as though he himself swore and uttered the oath from his own mouth. The Rambam repeats in several contexts that "amen" has power, and this is essentially the content of today's saying - about the preciousness and the power of a Jew's answering amen and "amen yehei shmei rabba" here in this world.