Today, with God's help, we will begin to enter the sefer. We will not yet reach the first teaching, nor even the introduction that precedes it, but rather the opening of the sefer - from the title page, from the very beginning.
The title page:
On the title page the content of the sefer is noted. In large letters it reads "Hayom Yom, Luach Or Zarua for Chabad Chassidim" - an expression taken from the letter of the previous Rebbe. 19 Kislev is the date on which the sefer opens, and it says "5703 Tadash". That was the year in which the Rebbe published the Hayom Yom: the sefer began on 19 Kislev 5703 and continued until 19 Kislev 5704, yet in the heading it was not written "5704" but "5703 Tadash" (a transposition of the letters of 5704).
Why was it written in this way? There is something mysterious here. In the Rebbe's personal copy of the Hayom Yom the Rebbe wrote notes in his own handwriting in the margin of the page - and we have a copy of them - and on these words he writes: "And not 5704, by the directive of my father-in-law, the Rebbe shlita." And he adds a sentence that the previous Rebbe said in Yiddish: when the time comes, everyone will understand. We still do not understand why, but this is the directive as it was written.
The quasi-introduction:
After this comes something of an introduction that the Rebbe wrote as an opening to the sefer, much of which is taken from the letter that the previous Rebbe wrote to the Rebbe, which we already read in the previous lesson. And so it opens: "The plan of this collection and its purpose, as well as its name, are explained in the letter of my father-in-law, the Rebbe shlita, of 3 Kislev 5703, and these are his words".
And these are the words of the Rebbe Rayatz to the Rebbe: "The festival of festivals, 19 Kislev, which is the Rosh Hashanah of the teachings of Chabad chassidus . . may he kindly arrange a calendar for the year, beginning from 19 Kislev until the coming 19 Kislev". As we already noted last time, the previous Rebbe wrote the letter on 20 Kislev, and he asks that a calendar be arranged from 19 Kislev - which was the day before - until the coming year.
"And it should include in particular" - and these are the subjects that the sayings and passages of each day are meant to include, three in number:
"a) Daily study portions, a fixed practice equal for every soul, apart from what each and every one studies according to his own measure" - in addition to each person's own personal shiurim, here will appear shiurim that are a fixed practice for every Chabad chassid, "and they are" what is known as Chitas:
a. Chumash with Rashi's commentary.
b. Tehillim after Shacharis, as it is divided for the days of the month.
c. Study portions of Tanya, as I have divided it for the days of this year.
"b) Customs of Chabad chassidim" - on many of the days various customs in various areas are brought.
"c) A collection of sayings from the teachings of chassidus and the ways of chassidim, short items for each day of the year".
This was the first time that the Rebbe Rayatz divided the Tanya into a daily study cycle, and it is according to this division that we learn Tanya to this day - and it appeared for the first time in this sefer, the Hayom Yom. And another interesting point: once it was established that 19 Kislev is the Rosh Hashanah of chassidus, one can say that the first practical step taken on this basis is the sefer Hayom Yom, in which the year begins on 19 Kislev - a calendar that does not begin on 1 Tishrei but on 19 Kislev.
And at the conclusion of the words of the Rebbe Rayatz to the Rebbe: "The calendar that he will arrange he should call by the name 'Hayom Yom, Luach Or Zarua for Chabad Chassidim'".
The Rebbe's words about the work of compiling:
And now the Rebbe writes what he did following the instruction he received from the previous Rebbe. "The sayings in this collection, most of which appear in print for the first time" - most of the material was not known to chassidim beforehand; some of it came from manuscripts that the Rebbe had from the Rebbe Rayatz, and this is the first time they saw the light of day. "Compiled from the talks of my father-in-law, the Rebbe shlita, and from his kesavim" - "umikesavav" of course means from his letters, but since many sayings are taken from the maamarim of the previous Rebbe, one may also read "and from his kesavim", for it is known that maamarim too are called kisvei chassidus. This word carries a double meaning.
"And as far as was possible, they were transcribed in their own wording, as they were said or written" - meaning that the material did not always come as a word for word quotation, but there are needed changes that the Rebbe chose to make. This is the style: "as far as was possible, in their own wording" - and when the Rebbe saw fit, he made a certain change. And for this reason some of the sayings were printed in Yiddish, in the original language from which they were taken, and some were printed in lashon hakodesh.
And another important sentence worth noting: "The compiler chose such items and statements that even people who have no more than some knowledge of the teachings of chassidus will be able to understand them". "The compiler" - the Rebbe is speaking of himself; and just as the Alter Rebbe called himself "the compiler" in his introduction, so does the Rebbe call himself by the same term in the introduction to his first sefer, the Hayom Yom. The Rebbe assesses that every chassid who studies these sayings need not be a great man or a learned one; some knowledge of chassidus is enough to understand the sayings of the sefer, which are very basic matters for each and every one.
"As an introduction to this calendar there comes a list of chapter headings from the history of the house of our Rebbeim" - in the introduction there is brought, for each one of the Rebbeim, a detailing of the days of his life, his family and his seforim, one after the other, before all the sayings. And from where did all this material come? "According to the information found in the diary of my father-in-law, the Rebbe shlita, and in his notes". And at the end the Rebbe signs his name.
And below there appears a general note to the sefer: "Note: wherever it is written in the calendar":
"aamur and aazmur" - adoni avi mori v'rabi (my father, my teacher and master), "the reference is to the father" of the previous Rebbe, "the Rebbe Maharashab, may his soul rest in Eden".
"aazmur" - adoni avi zkeini mori v'rabi (my grandfather, my teacher and master), the reference is "and to his grandfather, the Rebbe Maharash, may his soul rest in Eden, of the Rebbe shlita" - the intent being the Rebbe Rayatz.
This is the end of the quasi-introduction.
The opening passage on the next page:
On the next page there is brought a quotation of three or four lines from a letter of the previous Rebbe, originally in Yiddish and here in translation into lashon hakodesh, with which the Rebbe chose to open the sefer - even before the introduction that comes afterwards.
A bit of background: this letter was written by the previous Rebbe on 11 Tammuz 5702, in the midst of the World War, before the precise dimensions of the tragedy and how many Jews were murdered in the Holocaust became known. The Rebbe Rayatz was already in the United States then, and the letter is addressed to a gathering of "Yung Yisroel" - "Young Israel" - an organization of Jews.
The letter is relatively long, and the Rebbe took only a few sentences from it, and not even consecutive ones - a part from here he joined to the following part, and brought them here in the Hayom Yom. And these are the words in translation: "In the present time of haras olam" - the world is in a state of turmoil, a time of war; and "haras" is also from the word for pregnancy, and it is known that the redemption is called a birth, and the exile that precedes it is like the period of pregnancy. "When the whole world trembles from the birth pangs of Moshiach" - the pangs of Moshiach are like the labor pangs before a birth. "When Hashem has set fire to the walls of the exile" - the Holy One blessed be He has already begun to burn the walls of the exile toward the redemption.
In the original letter there comes here another whole passage: the enemy is already drawing close to Eretz Yisrael - for at that time they thought, God forbid, that he would manage to approach the Land as well - and the Rebbe describes that this is a time in which we are under a harsh king, harsh like Haman, and a time in which tens of thousands of Jews are being slaughtered cruelly. The dimensions were not yet known, and therefore it was written "tens of thousands", and we know afterwards that it was in the millions.
And what is called for in such a period? The Rebbe quotes from the continuation of the letter: "It is the task of every Jew, man or woman, adult or young, to pose to himself the question" - to ask himself; and then comes a sentence in bold letters: "What have I done and what can I do to ease the birth pangs of Moshiach and to merit the complete redemption through Moshiach Tzidkeinu?"
The Rebbe set this question as an eternal question, and not necessarily in connection with the specific war on account of which the letter was originally written. Even after the war comes to an end, the "haras olam" continues, and we must know that the birth pangs of Moshiach continue until the revelation of Moshiach. This question must be asked by each and every one at every time - what have I done to ease the birth pangs of Moshiach and to merit the complete redemption - and it is a question that should encourage. With this question we remain, and this is the opening.
In the next lesson, with God's help, we will move on to study the introduction to the sayings, and after that will come the palace with its three hundred eighty-three rooms, which we should merit to study with God's help.